Yes, it is 2014, and welcome to a new issue of the journal for the year. The journal will soon be available to you online when the APACs new website is up and running. All back issues from volume 1, number 1 in 1987 will also be available. After this time you will be able to choose to use both the online version and the printed one, or decline the printed version. More on this in the APAC newsletter later in the year.

Studies have found that moral disengagement plays a significant role in the continuation of bullying situations (Bonanno, 2005); however, the moral stance of cyber-bystanders — those who witness online bullying — is not yet clear. While research into traditional face-to-face bullying reported that peers would probably or certainly intervene to support victims in 43% of cases (Rigby & Johnson, 2006) actual intervention is reportedly much less (Atlas & Pepler, 1998; Craig & Pepler, 1997). Little is known, however, about the attitudes and behaviours of bystanders or witnesses when online, or their probable intentions to intervene. This study employed three digital animations of typical cyberbullying scenarios to explore young people's views of cyber-bystanders. Youth from Years 8–12 (mean age 15.06, N = 961) from one metropolitan secondary school in Adelaide, South Australia, completed an online survey after watching vignettes. To shed light on the rationale and thinking behind their understanding of bystanders and moral dis/engagement when online, this article reports on the qualitative responses from young people in relation to one of these animations/vignettes. The findings suggest that young people perceive cyber-bystanders to have the capacity to morally engage in cyberbullying incidents; however, there are various barriers to their active positive engagement. The implications can inform educators and school counsellors about possible ways to support students to intervene when they witness cyberbullying.

Aggressive behaviour in school-aged children presents a significant challenge for society. If not managed, it can result in adverse academic, social, emotional, and behavioural outcomes for the child. In addition, it can create stress for families and become a significant burden for the community as these children reach adolescence and adulthood, and engage in antisocial behaviours. Using a three-step exploratory analytical strategy, this study explored parent and child reports of a diverse range of underlying developmental and clinical variables that have been identified in the literature as predictors of aggressive child behaviour, and which could be addressed within an Australian school or community context. A total of 57 children and their parents were recruited from a referral-based Western Australian child mental health service, and the wider community. A group of 31 clinically aggressive children were identified and compared to a group of 26 non-aggressive children. The aggressive group was reported as having a greater prevalence of internalising symptoms, including anxiety and depression, and their aggressive behaviour was more likely to be of the callous/unemotional type, relative to their non-aggressive counterparts. Significant predictors of belonging to the aggressive group included child social problems, thought problems, attention problems, affective problems, narcissism, symptoms of ADHD and PTS, and low maternal self-esteem. Findings are presented and discussed in the context of established theories. Recommendations for principles of treatment for aggressive children and their families are suggested.

School professionals, particularly school counsellors and school psychologists, require detailed knowledge of many important factors that contribute to the personal, academic, and vocational development of the students in their charge (e.g., psychosocial development, curricula developments, local community developments and initiatives, national and international policy developments). The amount of detail and knowledge required by school counsellors/psychologists is bewildering, even before consideration of the individual differences in those who require their help. A framework can provide school professionals with a parsimonious approach to organising, synthesising and understanding all the information that needs to be considered in relation to a child within a particular environment. The current article reviews and comments upon the usefulness of two such theoretical frameworks — Bronfenbrenner's ecological model (1979, 1989) and Spiel, Reimann, Wagner, and Schober's (2008) Bildung-Psychology approach — to an exploration and understanding of a common issue; namely, bully/victim problems among school pupils. It is argued that such ecological/systemic approaches could usefully inform the design and evaluation of future efforts to address school bullying and violence. By extension, we propose that the simplicity of such models is of great value to the school professional who seeks a framework that can guide them in their work.

The purpose of this exploratory-descriptive study was to determine the career development of upper primary school students in Turkey. The Revised Career Awareness Survey (RCAS) was completed by 644 Turkish upper primary school students. Results indicated that the students were able to associate their own personal characteristics with particular careers and knew the characteristics of careers. They were less knowledgeable about life/career implications and life/career management tasks. The implications of the findings for career guidance and counselling practice are considered.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive value of gender, attachment dimensions and family environment in explaining loneliness among students. The study included 473 students (281 females, 192 males) from Ankara University. The UCLA Loneliness Scale, Family Environment Assessment Scale and Experiences in Close Relationships — Revised Questionnaire were administered to all participants. The results of the regression analyses demonstrated that the avoidance dimension of attachment accounted for 11%, avoidance and anxiety 14%, all attachment dimensions and family environment 18%, and all variables together (attachment dimensions, family environment, gender) accounted for 19% of variance in loneliness. The present study demonstrated that insecurely attached males with low-coherent families reported the highest degree of loneliness. On the contrary, securely attached females with high-coherent families reported the lowest degree of loneliness.

Distance education students are confronted with a range of additional challenges as part of their tertiary study experience. A quantitative approach was used to identify the challenges they face, their relative levels of satisfaction, coping strategies, and academic performance. Two hundred and ninety-five students (64 male and 231 female) participated by completing a survey that included measures of satisfaction, stress, coping, and academic performance. All were enrolled in an Australian university and studied either on campus or in one of two distance education (DE) modes, off-campus and offshore. While there were some differences in satisfaction expressed between DE and on-campus students, there were no significant differences between the groups on measures of stress or academic performance. The differences between the three groups’ use of coping strategies was less clear. Possible explanations for the differences between the groups are discussed.

Students making the transition from high school to university often encounter many stressors and new experiences. Many students adjust successfully to university; however, some students do not, often resulting in attrition from the university and mental health issues. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effects that optimism, self-efficacy, depression, and anxiety have on an individual's life stress and adaptation to university. Eighty-four first-year, full-time students from the Queensland University of Technology (60 female, 24 male) who had entered university straight from high school completed the study. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their levels of optimism, self-efficacy, depression, anxiety, perceived level of life stress and adaptation to university. In line with predictions, results showed that optimism, depression, and anxiety each had a significant relationship with students’ perceived level of stress. Furthermore, self-efficacy and depression had a significant relationship with adaptation to university. We conclude that students with high levels of optimism and low levels of depression and anxiety will adapt better when making the transition from high school to university. In addition, students with high levels of self-efficacy and low levels of depression will experience less life stress in their commencement year of university. The implications of this study are outlined.

The two articles in the Applied Practices section of the current journal provide interesting views of the role of school psychologists and school counsellors in interventions directly facilitating children's development, progress and skills within schools.

A small-scale research study was undertaken to identify the impact of attention and working memory (WM) strategies for one Year 3 class over four lessons. A selection of eight strategies was embedded in everyday mathematics lessons, and the class teacher was supported to adjust lesson delivery and monitor students experiencing WM overload. Explicit student and teacher instruction was provided to learn how to understand and apply the strategies during lessons. The goals of this research were to increase teacher expertise in teaching strategies to improve WM and to encourage students to practise and self-monitor strategy use. Students’ academic engagement rose to 100% and all students increased their academic achievement outcomes.

The notion of resilience has emerged in the 21st century as an important factor influencing children's responses to adverse events. In the past 10 years, resilience theory and resilience programs for children have flourished globally. ‘Healthy Mindsets for Super Kids’ is a new program aimed at building resilience in children aged 9–14. The program features 10 modules, illustrated by superhero themes, on topics of communication and social skills, anger management, grief and loss, body image, healthy relationships, and positive thinking. This review will introduce the Healthy Mindsets for Super Kids program (Jessica Kingsley publishers, 2014) in use by practitioners in educational, community and mental health settings. It will describe its content, evaluation and the value in building resilience in children at risk of mental health issues.