Original Articles

I am pleased to bring you 10 high-quality, interesting, original articles on rich and varied topics. Our authors come from diverse backgrounds and report on issues of global relevance to school psychology and counselling.

Five articles relate to school counsellors and/or counsellor training: Donald and colleagues examined worry and self-efficacy, Firat reported on the counsellor’s role in working with students with learning disabilities, Zukovic and Slijepčević investigated the reasons younger children present for counselling, Eyo explored the use of digital technologies in counsellor education, and Howard etal presented a timely piece on trauma aware practices. One article sheds light on teachers’ knowledge: Ginsburg and colleagues investigated the under researched area of teacher awareness of anxiety and specifically their use of anxiety reduction strategies. The three remaining original articles relate to students: Azadianbojnordi etal. examined academic hope in students applying for university, Choi and others investigated the role of motivation in the relationship between perfectionism and academic burnout, and Varsamis and colleagues used path modelling to reveal psychosocial predictors of bullying victimisation.

Thank you to our peer reviewers who have volunteered their time to ensure the research is of a high standard and has broad readership appeal. Happy reading and take care.

Practitioner Papers

The three Applied Practices papers in the current issue examine an interesting range of topics, all of which are of direct relevance to practitioners, and all of which challenge our thinking and assumptions.

Khawaja and Wotherspoon’s paper provides highly relevant, practical, and clear guidance for practitioners to assess CALD students with potential learning disorders. The paper is written for Australian school counsellors and psychologists and is well articulated with reference to the literature, including acknowledging some of the potential issues in this area, such as over diagnosis and the complexities of individual differences in learning English as a second language.

Faulkner’s article explores the role of rhythmic music as part of therapy with students. The author focuses on the benefits of a group approach using music and reflection, rather than using only direct individual talking, which can be inappropriate for engaging young people in certain contexts. Faulkner presents a good case for employing a different, more experiential means of working well with students.

Buenconsejo and Datu overview programs for Positive Youth Development, with a focus on adolescent strengths and their achievements in their communities, rather than adopting the negative, problem-focussed approach so commonly cited with this age group. The authors also note the paucity of research using positive youth programs in non-Western cultures, and the need to widen our work with contemporary constructs, such as positive psychology, into new cultural contexts.

I recommend all three papers to you as readers and practising psychologists and counsellors.

Susan Colmar PhD

Editor, Applied Practices