Predictors of psychological distress and well-being in a sample of Australian undergraduate students

Previous research has found university students report higher levels of psychological distress compared to the general population. Our aim was to investigate the degree to which personality and contextual factors predict psychological distress and well-being in students over the course of a semester. We also examined whether resilience-building skills, such as positive self-talk, mindfulness meditation and self-management, included in a first-year psychology subject, might reduce distress and improve well-being. Undergraduate first-year students (n?=?150) completed a battery of questionnaires in week three (Time 1; n?=?150) and week 10 (Time 2; n?=?53) of semester. At both times students reported high levels of psychological distress, as measured by the K10, the General Health Questionnaire and the Brief Symptom Inventory, and low levels of psychological well-being, as measured by the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale. Students exposed to resilience-building skills embedded in a subject (n?=?24) were no less distressed at Time 2 than those not enrolled in that subject (n?=?29). The personality traits of emotional resilience (vs. reactivity) and bounce-back resilience measured at Time 1 were the only significant predictors of psychological distress and well-being measured at Time 2. Students with high emotional and bounce-back resilience had lower psychological distress and higher well-being scores. Future research could consider development and trial of a full semester university subject designed to improve students’ resilience knowledge and skills.     

Evaluation of parenting,depression and violence profiles in methadone maintained women

Twenty-one patients of the Family Center Program for pregnant drug dependent women were studied employing tools which indicate potential ability to parent or risk of child abuse. The Profile of Mood States and Beck Depression Inventory were administered, and a Violence Questionnaire was self-administered to ascertain the presence of physical or sexual abuse in the mothers' lives. These results were compared to an assessment of parenting ability as well as general demographics and urinalyses which indicate whether the mothers were taking any drugs in addition to their methadone. Results revealed that there were strong relationships between parenting ability and abusive life events, prenatal clinic attendance, use of depressant drugs, number of children, age, and education and/or employment. These variables were also interrelated with depression, abnormal mood states, and general drug abuse. It appears that while polydrug abuse, psychological problems, and stressful life events are strong indicators of poor parenting ability, the successfully methadone maintained woman who does not feel the need to supplement her methadone with other drugs, whose life has stabilized, and who is relatively normal in her affect and mood, has a strong potential for good childrearing ability.     

Cultural and organisational issues facing online learning communities of teachers

Collegial sharing and reflection about practice has been widely suggested as an effective form of teacher professional learning. Information and communications technology (ICT) has the potential to foster this professional learning through online community environments. Whilst the potential of self-sustaining online teacher communities to support professional learning through reflective sharing of practice is recognised, the journey to realising this potential is not straightforward. This paper identifies two key aspects of school culture that are acting as barriers on the journey—schools do not adequately value collegial reflective sharing of practice, and classroom teachers do not use online communications tools as an integral part of their professional practices. The paper suggests a framework for maximising participation in online teacher communities.     

Between work and learning: on pedagogic practice and interstitial space

In this paper I develop a response to a continuing problem in work–learning research, the connections between education, learning and work. These connections are commonly conceived in terms of the concept of transfer, integration or boundary crossing. Thinking these connections in this way, I claim, serves to consolidate a unitary, stable and fixed idea of the relationship between learning in educational institutions and work and inadvertently reduce its complexity. Drawing on empirical data collected over the course of qualitatively exploring the links between a problem-based program of teacher education (‘learning’) and the practice of participants in this program upon initial employment in schools (‘work’), and deploying actor network theory, I trace new sorts of associations between work and learning and propose a relational conception of their connection. Challenging the common counter-positioning of work and learning, empirical analysis reveals their mutual constitution and partial connection in practices, here, of a predominantly pedagogic and spatial/material kind. Practices that occupy interstitial spaces have a particular resonance with regard to challenging this counter-positioning and unsettling the hierarchies of value which often arise from it.     

The Success of Schools in Implementing Eight Restructuring Designs: A Synthesis of First‐Year Evaluation Outcomes

In the UK there has been strong governmental pressure on schools to adopt a technicist‐rational approach to management. This paper reports an investigation of the relationship between the efficiency of resource management and school effectiveness using data from 117 secondary school inspection reports undertaken by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). School effectiveness is assessed in terms of qualitative and quantitative measures of the quality of learning and teaching reported by inspectors. Quantitative indicators of the extent to which schools are assessed as ‘efficient’ in managing resources were derived. Statistical analysis suggests a positive association between school effectiveness and rational management practice.     

Age Role Expectations and Sex Role Expectations for Selected Sport Activities

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine if role expectations for participation in 12 selected sport activities existed based on the age (20, 40, 60, or 80 years old) and/or gender of the referent person. A secondary purpose was to determine if the sex role orientation of the respondent influenced the assignment of these age related and/or gender related stereotypes to participation in sport. Female undergraduate nursing students (N = 93) were administered an Activity Appropriateness Scale developed by the investigators and Bem's Sex-Role Inventory (1974). The results indicated that age related expectancies accounted for almost 40% of the variance in subject's responses to the appropriateness of participating in these selected sports and was a more potent stereotype than responses based on sex role appropriateness. Furthermore, sex role orientation × age of the referent person interactions indicated that masculine subjects viewed sports participation as most appropriate, particularly as the age of the referent person increased from 60 to 80 years. The evidence suggests that research be directed toward examining and accounting for the phenomenon of ageism in sport.     

Voices on the Web: Student teachers negotiating identity

Student teachers studying by distance or external mode occupy a marginal and potentially isolated position with respect to the university. When undertaking a practicum experience, they individually enter a space within their placement school in which they may once more be presented with the challenge of operating from the margins. Using the Web and a 'bulletin board' facility, external Graduate Diploma in Education students were provided with the opportunity to 'chat' on-line during their recent practicum experience. The 'visible voices' of those students who participated in this Web link provide an interesting background to considerations of the ongoing negotiation within these marginal spaces by student teachers with respect to their emerging teaching identities. The extent to which the Web can provide students with a new notion of a learning community or a site for a critical or resistant dialogue and implications for broader issues concerning student 'voice' and subjectivities are considered within this article.     

Measuring teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs: Development and use of the TEBS-Self

This paper distinguishes between teacher efficacy and teacher self-efficacy beliefs and describes a need for theory and research-based measures of teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs that are grounded in the context of the classroom. To meet this need, a new measure of teacher self-efficacy beliefs, the Teachers’ Efficacy Beliefs System-Self (TEBS-Self), is described by the authors. Principal components analysis results are presented from three independent studies performed in the United States (n=2373 K-6 teachers) using the TEBS-Self.