Psychologists play an important role in the provision of mental health support to young people. Some psychologists are incorporating apps into therapy with young people; however, little is understood about why such incorporation is taking place. Ten semi-structured qualitative interviews exploring why psychologists augment therapy by recommending or using apps alongside therapy were undertaken. Findings suggest that psychologists were prompted to update their therapeutic approach in response to client-initiated discussion of apps. Personal use of apps, higher engagement in therapy, increased access to therapeutic strategies between sessions, and a reduction of the stigma associated with externalising therapeutic strategies were also facilitating factors. Implications for practice such as apps currently complementing structured therapy over unstructured talk therapy, and further research are explored.

The present study applied a qualitative case study methodology to the educational challenges of three students from a refugee background, in order to identify an appropriate psychological assessment process with which to evaluate their difficulties. Three students who had arrived from Iraq 1–2 years ago (one male and two females; aged 13 and 14 years) were referred by their teachers for psychological assessment as their academic progress was poor, despite remedial education. An educational and developmental psychologist, guided by a steering committee of psychologists and educationists, interviewed each student, his/her parent/s, and teachers independently. Based on referral concerns, hypotheses relating to the cause of educational difficulties were generated and psychological tests and checklists were used with all students and their parents and teachers. The data collected assisted in understanding multiple factors that may affect learning for students who have arrived from a war-torn country, and highlighted the importance of gathering detailed case-specific information to understand each student’s background and current context. Challenges associated with the assessment process were identified. Further, ways in which psychologists and guidance officers, teachers and parents could promote these students’ learning were identified. Implications for schools and policy developers are discussed.

The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in children and adolescents requires school psychologists and counsellors to be informed of evidence-based elements of interventions through which they can tailor their treatment to the individual in a school context. This meta-analysis identified common practice elements within evidence-based trauma interventions for schools. A small to medium effect size was identified in the 10 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) included in this meta-analysis. Within these RCTs, 31 common practice elements were identified, with social skills training, coping skills training, relaxation techniques, psychoeducation, mind-body techniques, group work and creative-expressive techniques correlating with the most effective outcomes. The findings suggest that common practice elements exist across multiple school-based trauma interventions of varying modalities.

Poor school connectedness (SC), defined as students’ feelings of belonging, safety, and fairness at school, is a risk factor for negative psychosocial outcomes. Few studies have examined the specific relationship between SC and anxiety. This study examined the relation between SC and anxiety within a group of 114 clinically anxious youth (mean age = 10.82; SD = 2.93; 48.2% female; 70.2% White, non-Hispanic); age differences were also examined. Results indicated that SC was significantly negatively associated with age but unrelated to gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, parent education, or presence of a comorbid disorder. Findings generally revealed that low SC was associated with greater total and domain specific anxiety. SC may play a unique role in the maintenance of global and domain specific anxiety symptoms.

The increasing tendency of immigration and forced migration practices around the world has made countries’ populations culturally and linguistically diverse. Australia is considered one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. Consequently, the proportion of school-aged children with different culture and language is also increasing. Thus, school psychologists and guidance counsellors face the challenge of designing fair assessment practices and sound interventions for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students who experience difficulties with their learning. Although many multicultural countries have extensive research regarding the assessment of learning difficulties in CALD students, Australia lacks this research. This study explored the most common assessment strategies that school psychologists and guidance counsellors usually implement in their assessment of CALD students. These results were then compared to a best practice model from the literature. In order to understand the current practices of school psychologists and counsellors in Australia who have assessed CALD children, a survey was administered to 34 school psychologists and counsellors. It was found that the reported strategies and protocols were very close to the ones proposed by experts, which was an unexpected outcome of this study. Implications for school psychologists and counsellors are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to test the effects of school bullying on school mindfulness and school academic performance through a structural equation model. The study was framed around the correlational design method; school bullying was taken as the independent variable and school mindfulness and school academic performance were used as the dependent variables. The study participants consisted of 156 high school teachers working in three of the schools selected from various school districts by means of the maximum variation sampling method. The data were collected via the School Bullying Scale (Tintorer, 2004), the School Mindfulness Scale (Hoy, Gage, & Tarter, 2006), and the average scores on the Higher Education Transition exam for each school. Path analysis was conducted to enable associating measurement errors in both latent and observed variables. Our study findings show that school bullying negatively affects school mindfulness and academic performance and that school mindfulness positively affects academic performance. In addition, the findings reveal that verbal bullying, consisting of behaviours such as harassing phone calls, taking someone’s money or belongings by force, intimidating actions with violent threats, name calling, racist expressions and teasing, swearing, lying to others or insulting them, is more frequently observed than other bullying types.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), with its three forms (youth, parent and teacher version), is widely used to assess emotional and behavioural disorders in children and adolescents. The present study examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the teacher version of the scale (SDQ-T) with adolescents from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background. It also explored the impact of demographic factors on the mental health outcomes of CALD adolescents in the school setting as indicated by SDQ-T. Teachers from a Special English language transitional school in Brisbane, Australia completed the SDQ-T for 175 culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents. The exploratory factor analysis indicated a 23-item scale with a four-factor structure: Prosocial Behaviour, Hyperactivity, Emotional Symptoms, and Behavioural Problems. The revised scale had sound internal consistency. Findings indicated that CALD adolescents from refugee backgrounds scored higher on Emotional Symptoms, Conduct and Peer Problems, and SDQ total difficulties. There were no differences on subscale scores based on gender or English language proficiency. SDQ-T emerged as a promising scale that can be used to understand CALD adolescents’ postmigration emotional experiences, risks and protective factors. The implications of the SDQ-T in schools with adolescents from migrant and refugee backgrounds are discussed.

Despite the fact that many research studies (Canon & Lipscomb, 2011; Jimerson, 2001a, 2001b, 2004; Martin, 2011) have shown that grade repetition offers few benefits to students, it continues to be used as an early intervention practice to address students’ low levels of readiness for school or early school failure. The study contributes to the evidence-based research on grade repetition in Australian schools by drawing on, and analysing, the most recent data on grade repetition from Queensland’s state education department, the Department of Education and Training. Descriptive statistics and relative risk ratio, used to analyse the data, found that boys aged 5 years are overrepresented in grade repetition in the first year of schooling, ‘Prep’, in Queensland state schools. Possible reasons for the disproportionate overrepresentation of boys aged 5 years repeated in Prep are discussed, together with recommendations for future policy and practice.

This applied experimental research tested the effectiveness of a universal, student-focused intervention (‘Memory Mates’), specifically focused on supporting students to use attention and working memory strategies within academic contexts, unlike computer-based programs. Memory Mates is presented in the form of icons and explanations, with the strategies embedded within the classroom. Analyses compared the impact of the intervention over 8 months in three schools with three control schools, comprising 13 Year 4 primary school classes. The intervention group students showed a significant improvement in mathematics and spelling; however, there was no differential effect on reading comprehension or academic engagement. Based on the present results, it is contended that implementing Memory Mates within classroom contexts demonstrated promising potential as a new approach to supporting academic progress.

Cybermentoring refers to virtual peer support in which young people themselves are trained as cybermentors and interact with those needing help and advice (cybermentees) online. This article describes the training in, and implementation of, a cross-national cybermentoring scheme, Beatbullying Europe, developed in the United Kingdom. It involved train-the-trainer workshops for partners and life mentors in six European countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic) in 2013–2014, followed by training sessions for pupil cybermentors aged 11–16 years. Although BeatBullying went into liquidation in November 2014, the project was largely completed. We (1) report an evaluation of the training of the life mentors and mentors, via questionnaire survey; and (2) discuss findings about the implementation of the scheme and its potential at a cross-national level, via partner interviews during and at the end of the project. The training was found to be highly rated in all respects, and in all six countries involved. The overall consensus from the data available is that there was a positive impact for the schools and professionals involved; some challenges encountered are discussed. The BeatBullying Europe project, despite being unfinished, was promising, and a similar approach deserves further support and evaluation in the future.

Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS™) is a tested strategy for improving communication and climate in hospitals. It is a promising but untested tool among school-based mental health teams. We examined the psychometric properties of the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) and Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire (T-TAQ) among 167 school mental health team members. Team members worked for one of five agencies in 33 K-8 urban public schools. Exploratory factor analyses and descriptive data are presented. For both the T-TPQ and T-TAQ, a unitary factor structure best fit the data for this sample. The T-TPQ and T-TAQ were not significantly correlated with one another and total scores did not significantly differ by staff role. Agencies differed in T-TAQ results, and one agency had lower T-TAQ total scores relative to other agencies. Results suggest that the factor structures are different among school mental health teams than among other healthcare providers.

Parent-adolescent conflict seems to be common when adolescents negotiate power with their parents. Forum theatre (FT), an interactive and participatory theatre form, is recommended as a community-based intervention to assist Chinese parents in managing the challenges of parent-adolescent interaction. FT proposes that solutions to daily struggles can be reached through concerted efforts of the participants. This article documents the impact of FT on parents who took on the role of ‘spect-actor’. The spect-actor is an active spectator who acts on stage to test solutions to a problem. The results indicate that parents gained more awareness of their children’s needs, which helped them to relax their control over their children. FT is recommended as a means of parent education in schools.

Previous research shows that the first year of a school counsellor’s career is one of the most critical stages. However, despite this importance, there is a limited number of studies that examine what novice school counsellors experience during their first year. The primary purpose of this qualitative study is to examine in detail the common experiences of novice school counsellors who have worked the first year of their professional career and to explore comprehensive themes regarding these experiences. Following a purposive sampling strategy, 33 school counsellors who started their profession in 19 different cities of Turkey were interviewed. As a result of the thematic analysis, five major themes emerged describing the first-year experiences of school counsellors: ‘Introduction’, ‘Fighting against Prejudices’, ‘Organising Counselling Service Room’, ‘Incongruence between Training and Work Definitions’, and ‘Longing for College Years’.

Resilience is a crucial personal characteristic of school counsellors to protect and maintain their wellbeing against the effects of occupational stress factors in school settings. However, there has been a lack of research investigating school counsellors’ resilience in Turkey. Therefore, this study aims to explore the resilience of school counsellors working in schools with at-risk students in terms of stress and protective factors. The study was conducted using a qualitative research method with a phenomenological approach. The data were collected through semistructured interviews from 10 school counsellors working in schools with at-risk students. The data analysis was carried out with an inductive approach using an NVivo 11 software package program. The analysis revealed a variety of findings, both positive and negative, regarding the resilience of school counsellors. In this scope, three interrelated themes emerged as ‘Occupational Stressors’, ‘Personal Factors: Strength versus Vulnerability’, and ‘Positive and Negative Results: Happiness and Satisfaction versus Helplessness and Burnout’. The results show that school counsellors working in schools with at-risk students experience a variety of occupational stresses and that their experience of happiness and satisfaction, or helplessness and burnout, depends on a level of strengths or weaknesses with reference to personal factors.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of counselling self-efficacy, trait anxiety and cognitive flexibility in predicting job satisfaction of school counsellors. The study was conducted according to a correlational research design. The sample group consisted of 99 female and 77 male school counsellors voluntarily participating in the study. Data collection tools included the Personal Information Form, Job Satisfaction Scale, Counselor Activity Self-Efficacy Scale, Trait Anxiety Inventory and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory. The data were analysed with Pearson product-moment correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis. According to the research findings, the job satisfaction of school counsellors was identified to have moderate significant correlations with counselling self-efficacy, trait anxiety and cognitive flexibility. Counselling self-efficacy and trait anxiety were each concluded to be significant predictors of job satisfaction. Finally, cognitive flexibility was found not to be a significant predictor of job satisfaction. The results are interpreted and discussed in accordance with the relevant literature.

This study examined Turkish school counsellors’ (SCs) ratings of the importance of factors in deciding to report students’ risk-taking behaviours to school administrators (SAs). A sample of Turkish SCs (N = 252) were surveyed. Most and least important factors were determined. Group differences in terms of gender, school level of employment, and attending mandatory counselling ethics training were investigated. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used in group comparisons. ‘Protecting the student’ was rated as the most important factor, and ‘Gender of the student’ was the least important factor. Statistically significant group differences with respect to gender, school level of employment, and attending mandatory counselling ethics training were identified. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.