International Journal of Emotional Education

26 - 41

Authors: Pam Gershon and John Pellitteri

This paper compares four selected social-emotional learning (SEL) curricula that have empirical support for preschool students (Preschools PATHS, Incredible Years, Al’s Pals, and Preschool RULER). First, meta-analytic studies of SEL programs in schools and research on emotional intelligence (EI) of preschool children are reviewed as a background for understanding the four programs. Preschool EI research is examined as it relates to outcome variables such as school engagement, social adjustment, emotion regulation and academics. The programs are critiqued and compared on the particular SEL areas of focus, context of delivery, structure of delivery, and intervention strategies. Research on cross cultural adaptation of programs is also examined. Areas for future directions in EI preschool curricula research are identified.

59 - 76

Authors: László Kasik, Kornél Guti, Zita Gál, Csaba Gáspár, Edit Tóth and József Balázs Fejes

Most questionnaires construe avoidance as resulting from a problem-solving process and analyse only a few, single-factor and mostly non-adequate, forms of avoidance. The aim of the present study was to develop a multi-dimensional questionnaire to measure avoidance among adolescents. We tested the Avoidance Questionnaire for Adolescents (AQA) with 12-, 15- and 18-year-olds to measure most forms of avoidance in social problem-solving as well as to shed light on the relationships between the sub-processes of social problem-solving. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed to examine the measure’s factor structure, while confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were used to support the theoretical process model of avoidance. The convergent and discriminative validity of the AQA was tested in relation to the Social Problem-Solving Inventory–Revised (SPSI–R). Two versions (a long version of 42 items and a short version of 23 items) of the 11-factor AQA were developed in accordance with the results. The long and short versions were found to be valid measures of problem-solving with regards to negative thoughts, feelings and physical symptoms; negative self-efficacy/insolvability; prevention; annulation; ignoring the problem; expectation/diversion; mulling; procrastination/rethink; stopping/subordination; external pressure; and asking for help. The factors show positive or negative correlations with the SPSI–R factors. The results of the SEM support the original process model. Based on earlier Hungarian research carried out with the SPSI–R, avoidance shows a tendency to increase in adolescence. In contrast, the results of the AQA show that the earliest age differences occur in the ignoring the problem, procrastination, stopping, diversion and expectation factors.

93 - 110

Authors: Gerardo Moreno and Michael Scaletta

In August 2016, Illinois Senate Bill 100 (SB 100) restricted the use of zero tolerance disciplinary practices within public schools when addressing student behavior. In efforts to make school discipline less exclusionary and more effective, SB 100 mandated educators exhaust all means of interventions prior to suspending or expelling a student. Additionally, SB 100 recommended faculty professional development on effective classroom management, which is critical considering the majority of exclusionary discipline cases resulted from referrals by classroom educators for subjective deportment concerns and not from student possession of contraband. Using an online survey instrument, a sample of licensed educators in northeastern Illinois were asked to self-rate their preparedness in classroom management and indicate their awareness of zero tolerance policies. Results demonstrated significant difference of self-rated preparedness between general and special educators when addressing classroom deportment behaviors, while there was no difference in more intense behaviors (e.g., verbal threats, possession of contraband). Discussion on results and suggestions for future research are offered.

118 - 121

Authors: Helen Cowie

This post script to an article originally written in 2011 takes account of changes that have occurred since then in the ways that children and young people use the social media. Although the fundamental message of the original article remains the same, the post script discusses key ways in which the article would differ if it were being written today. The focus here is on i) young people’s need for connectedness which is increasingly met in online digital communities; the problems occur when young people are excluded or humiliated within these online communities; ii) the increase in moral disengagement on the part of bystanders in situations where humiliating messages and videos are widely circulated amongst the peer group; iii) changes in laws concerned with online harassment and abuse, and how these affect young people. The influence of the wider culture is also discussed.

131- 138

Authors: Andrew V. Dane, Anthony A. Volk & Prarthana Franklin

This study extended previous research published in this journal in which parental monitoring knowledge was negatively associated with tolerance of antisocial behavior in adolescents with temperamental deficits in self-regulation. In the current study, parental control (i.e., adolescent permission seeking) and adolescent self-disclosure were negatively associated with attitudinal tolerance of antisocial behavior, Additionally, Honesty-Humility and Emotionality were negatively related to antisocial attitudes, and parental control was related to tolerance of antisocial behavior only when Honesty-Humility was low. In both studies, parental behavioral control was related more strongly to antisocial attitudes when adolescents had traits that predisposed them to antisocial behavior.

146 - 153

Authors: Maria S. Poulou

This postscript describes studies which address teachers’ personal and professional characteristics, teacher-student relationships and students’ social and emotional skills, in an attempt to investigate potential predictors of students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties. Based on preschool, primary and secondary teachers and students’ perceptions, the studies indicated that teachers’ perceptions of emotional intelligence, social and emotional skills implementation, and teaching efficacy were indirectly linked to students’ emotional and behavioral difficulties, through teacher-student relationships. The paper suggests new insights into the interpretation of students’ adjustment at schools, and underscores the importance of teacher-training in helping teachers to develop personal and professional skills.

159 - 162

Authors: Simona Scaini and Marcella Caputi

Short Research Report

25 - 46

Authors: Alexander Stretton, Barbara A. Spears, Carmel Taddeo and Judy Drennan

Help-seeking is an adaptive process whereby a person seeks external support for a problem. Help-seeking early in response to mental health concerns is thus important in preventing mental illness in later life. Recent developments in service provision such as online help services, have been identified as promoting helpseeking behaviours, but there are many barriers that work against a young person seeking effective help early on, including personal characteristics such as attitudes toward help sources. Further, the influence of others on a young person’s help-seeking behaviours is beginning to emerge in the youth help-seeking literature, and may be an important facilitator of help-seeking behaviours. The present mixed- method study explored young people’s attitudes toward help sources, and how receptive young people are to the influence of others on their help-seeking intentions. Critically, the study aims to determine whether these variables have varying effects on different types of help sources (formal, informal and online). It was found that the influence of others and attitudes toward help sources had little bearing on online help-seeking intentions, in contrast to help-seeking intentions from traditional modes of help-seeking. Recommendations are made as to how young people can be better informed about the benefits of online help-seeking, with the hopes of highlighting the potentially untapped resource of other people’s influence on a young person’s decision to seek help online.

68 - 88

Authors: Marianna Kosic

The paper explores the opportunities and challenges of combining media literacy and social-emotional literacy to promote mental health and wellbeing in school curricula. It describes the implementation of an experimental module within the program Crescere Insieme What's Up (Growing up together What's Up). This upstream prevention and health promotion program, from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region (north-eastern Italy) is designed to harness the protective effects of developing and strengthening life skills to move beyond risk factors to prevent youth suicide, fostering connections and support between school and mental health institutions, peers and adults. The program activities involved role plays and reflection activities, collaborating in project group work, consulting and producing media (such as articles, Youtube videos and Powerpoint presentations) for peer-to-peer education. It adopted an experiential approach enabling active engagement of high school students, their parents and teachers, and 'learning by doing' with agency and responsibility. Qualitative feedback from students and teachers, study limitations and further implications are discussed.

112 - 132

Authors: Pamela Portelli

This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief Alcohol Expectancy Challenge, with the aim of reducing the prevalence of alcohol consumption amongst Maltese teenagers.119 students were randomly allocated to a control or a 3-hour expectancy challenge session. Alcohol consumption and alcohol expectancies were investigated via a self-report questionnaire delivered at baseline, immediately after the intervention and at 4 months follow-up. Despite significant differences in alcohol expectancy scores at the post-intervention, no significant reductions in alcohol consumption were observed in the experimental group. On the other hand, a significant increase in alcohol consumption was observed in the control group at postintervention. This study failed to support the effectiveness of alcohol expectancy challenge (AEC) to curb alcohol misuse, but it is still possible that AEC may help prevent the increase of alcohol consumption. Possibly, the teaching of alcohol refusal skills and educational efforts to help dispel prevalent misconceptions related to alcohol expectancies amongst both parents and students can yield more effective long-term outcomes. Targeting school children from an earlier age might also be needed since alcohol expectancies are often formed in childhood.

145 - 163

Authors: Paul Downes

With early school leaving prevention being an agreed European Union headline target of 10% across the EU by 2020, emotional-relational dimensions to education are gaining renewed attention in European education policy. Against this backdrop, prominent criticisms of an emotional well-being agenda in education by Ecclestone (2004, 2007) and Ecclestone & Hayes (2009) require further consideration. The key objective of this paper is to challenge and reconstruct six key arguments of Ecclestone and Hayes against emotional wellbeing in education. There is a need to move beyond paradigms of conceptual coherence that rest upon diametric oppositions – thought/feeling, healthy/sick, diminished/undiminished, optimism/pessimism, subject/negation of a subject, learning/therapy. It is argued that an emotional well-being agenda in education is a conceptually coherent one, once different levels of prevention and intervention are distinguished and the argument goes beyond flat, undifferentiated conceptions of ‘therapeutic culture’. The Cartesian model supported by Ecclestone and Hayes to frame a ‘diminished’ self is but one selfhood. A more nuanced debate would focus on the strengths and weaknesses of different, pluralistic conceptions of selfhood. Their most substantive objections to an emotional well-being agenda in education concern deficit labelling and privacy and are important cautionary notes.