International Journal of Emotional Education

12

Authors: Helen Cowie

Book reviews

16

Authors: Segun Emmanuel Adewoye, Annelize du Plessis

This study aimed to ascertain how the four domains of self-debasing cognitive distortion, namely personalisation, catastrophising, overgeneralisation and selective abstraction, could predict or inform emotional disturbance in the reactions of bystanders when witnessing bullying behaviour. We utilised purposive sampling to select 10 bystanders of school bullying for participation in the study and performed convenient sampling to select a research site. We conducted interviews that were recorded on a voice recorder and transcribed thereafter. Qualitative data was analysed through inductive thematic analysis. Our findings revealed that personalisation evoked bystanders’ self-blame and feelings of guilt, catastrophising amplified their anxiety and fear, overgeneralisation induced and exacerbated their negative perception of school safety, and selective abstraction led to indirect co-victimisation. Based on our findings, we recommend that school psychologists, counsellors and behavioural healthcare service providers should teach victims of bullying, especially bystanders, how to recognise, challenge and reappraise negative and unhelpful thoughts and feelings related to their experiences.

16

Authors: Brian Stipp and Lance Kilpatrick

This paper evaluates P-12 American school teachers’ perceptions of a six-session training that used the trauma-informed Trust-based Relational Intervention (TBRI) system with teachers in one socioeconomically vulnerable school district during the 2018-19 school year. The research questions explored the training participants’ (n=41) opinions about the TBRI training, as well as the opinions of the school district’s veteran teachers (n=52) about trends related to student and teacher mental health in schools over the last five years. The training participants found the TBRI training series socially acceptable and valuable. Veteran teachers in the district where the study was conducted reported increased levels of emotional distress in students and in themselves.

21

Authors: Shima Ahmadi-Azad, Hassan Asadollahfam and Masoud Zoghi

English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers differ in their autonomy-supportive and controlling interpersonal behavioral styles when motivating learners. Drawing upon the self-determination theory (SDT) and the model of interpersonal teacher behavior (MITB), this study aimed to investigate the impact of teachers’ interpersonal behaviors, according to eight behavioral dimensions: leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, student responsibility/freedom, uncertain, dissatisfied, admonishing, and strict. 1,209 Iranian EFL learners were requested to assess their teachers’ interpersonal behavior via the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) as well as their degree and type of motivation (autonomous and controlled) through the Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SDQ-A). The results of the partial least squares structural equation modelling revealed that teachers’ controlling behaviours of leadership and strictness significantly enhanced EFL learners’ controlled motivation, while their autonomy-supportive behaviours of helpfulness/friendliness and understanding positively influenced learners’ autonomous motivation. Teachers’ autonomy-suppressive behaviour of uncertainty negatively influenced learners’ autonomous motivation. This study’s findings encourage stakeholders in the educational sector to consider EFL teachers’ interpersonal behaviours and the influence of these behaviors on learning motivation.

23 - 39

Authors: Michael Wigelsworth, Alice Eccles and Joao Santos

This article reports the findings of a pre-pandemic national survey of English primary schools (n=621) examining how Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is prioritised and practiced in school. Perceived benefits and prioritisation of SEL, barriers and facilitators in supporting implementation, and the nature and extent to which whole school approaches, classroom interventions and/or individual teaching practices are present, are discussed. Responses showed consistency in respect to some established findings in the field, namely concerns of time in respect to implementation, however some novel findings emerged, including satisfaction with programmes and training approaches, and a higher prevalence of SEL practice than previously reported. Findings are discussed in relation to an increasing nuance in understanding SEL provision within schools. The study contributes to limited research regarding typical practices, especially outside of funded trials, and in doing so provides useful and relevant information for educational professionals responsible for the implementation of SEL post-pandemic.

59 - 79

Authors: Victor Martinelli and Milosh Raykov

School climate is a vital aspect of school life that influences students’ emotional well- being, social relations and academic achievement. Therefore, educators need to monitor school climate to nurture good interpersonal relations and students’ positive experiences in school. To achieve this objective, educators and psychosocial support services in schools need valid and reliable instruments to measure and monitor school climate. A review of the instruments for measuring school climate shows that they are available in several countries, but their application in these diverse settings requires evaluation and adaptation to the different conditions where they are being implemented. This study is part of a larger international project that examines the use of the Georgia Elementary School Climate Survey across many countries. The project includes students’, parents’, and educators’ perceptions of school climate and aims to address the existing shortage of valid instruments of this important indicator of school life in Maltese educational settings. This study was based on responses from 592 children from five primary schools and focused on evaluating an adapted version of the Georgia Elementary School Climate Survey for primary school children. The study indicates that the slightly adapted scale has a good structure and acceptable internal consistency, indicating that the scale can be used in school practice. Based on the analysis of the items in the questionnaire, the study provides some suggestions for further development of this scale to respond better to the local educational setting.

19-34

Authors: Naime Elcan Kaynak

The purpose of this qualitative study is to shed light on elementary teachers’ perspectives on their sense of well-being, with emphasis on contextual factors that promote or block their sense of well-being. Data were collected through background questionnaires, teachers’ journal writings, and interviews with teachers. Findings reveal that teachers’ sense of well-being was fostered mainly by student growth and supportive colleagues. The major themes that emerged as negatively affecting teachers’ well-being were the influence of accountability testing, lack of power, sense of being scrutinized, student misbehavior, and heavy workload. The results of this study show the need for restructuring teaching contexts. When schools are places in which teachers feel valued, respected, empowered and involved in decision-making processes, they are likely to have a better sense of well-being.

48-64

Authors: Valeria Verrastro, Giuseppe Ritella, Valeria Saladino, Jessica Pistella, Roberto Baiocco and Lilybeth Fontanesi

This study examines how family functioning, the parent-child relationship and personal factors are related to happiness in 1549 children aged 7 to 14 years old (53% females) in Italy. Children and pre-adolescents completed a set of questionnaires on self-rated happiness, self-concept and loneliness. At least one of their parents filled in questionnaires on family functioning, attachment and their child’s happiness level. No gender differences were found in the direct measure of happiness, but younger participants were happier than older participants, according to both the children’s and parents’ evaluations. Happiness is influenced by positive self-concept, self-esteem and low levels of satisfaction but family functioning does not seem to play a major role. The clinical and social implications of the study are discussed.

83-87

Authors: Noemi Keresztes, Bettina F. Piko, Lynlee Howard-Payne and Himanshu Gupta

Short Research Report

26 - 40

Authors: Guadalupe Refugio Flores-Verduzco, Blanca Silvia Fraijo-Sing and César Octavio Tapia-Fonllem

Educational institutions are crucial environments to promote students’ wellbeing. This introduces major challenges into the processes of executing and evaluating programmes such as the ones focused on achieving bullying-free schools. The concept of social wellbeing that is used throughout the present paper is associated to the subjective sense of action in the social construction and understanding of reality. The primary objective was to examine the relationship between Family Support (FS) and Social Wellbeing (SW) of high school education students in the state of Sonora, Mexico, as well as the effect of potential mediation of the School Environment (SE). This research was carried out with a cross-sectional sample of 265 teenagers (average age = 16 years old, SD=1.35), who responded to a self-report scale developed for this research study. The structural model has shown a high predictive power of SE as a mediating variable between FS and SW. Furthermore, both immediate contexts of students, i.e. family and school, were found to be relevant to their emotions and SW, which translates into a lower probability of being a victim of bullying. Therefore, we discuss a concept of SW seen from a perspective related to emotions, where material, economic, and/or monetary factors are not a priority.

56 - 72

Authors: Irina Rosa Kumschick, Felicitas Thiel, Camilla Goschin and Eva Froehlich

The internship that preservice teachers complete early in the course of their studies paves the way for their transition from the role of student to that of teacher. It gives them a first opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge and develop practical skills, especially to improve their decision-making competences in the three-part process of teaching: planning a lesson, teaching it, and reflecting on the teaching performance (PTR). The present study addresses two research questions. First, to what extent do preservice teachers perceive themselves to be more competent in PTR after their initial teaching internship? Second, to what extent does the individual mood correlate with any reported improvement? 592 preservice teachers participated in the study. Using latent change score modelling, we found learning gains in all three dimensions of PTR. In addition, the results show that negative mood predicts processes of planning and reflecting following the internship, but has no effect on the actual teaching of the lesson.

90 - 102

Authors: Eugeny L. Dotsenko, Vera A. Startseva, Olga V. Pchelina, Elena V. Karaberova and Natalya Ivantsova

This paper discusses a class of phenomena called a “responsible decision”, a type of decision making in which the choice between behavioural capabilities is determined by the alternative values that lie behind them. Using Vygotksy’s theory of cultural and historical development, this paper posits that the process of a child's internalization of interpersonal dialogue is used as a means of making a responsible decision. The participants in the study included 137 Russian children and adolescents, aged 6-17 years old. The procedure used in the study showed an increase in the level of maturity of responsible decisions in children aged 6-11-year-old. The study revealed that the primary school age is the crucial time and area of proximal development for making responsible decisions. This has implications for some of the methods which adults can use to support a child’s ability to make responsible decisions.

17 - 32

Authors: Christina Köppe, Marco Jürgen Held and Astrid Schütz

We evaluated a Web-Based Emotional Intelligence Training (WEIT) program that was based on the four-branch model of emotional intelligence (EI) and which aimed at improving emotion perception (EP) and emotion regulation (ER) in future leaders. Using a controlled experimental design, we evaluated the short-term (directly after the WEIT program) and long-term (6 weeks later) effects in a sample of 134 (59 training group [TG], 75 wait list control group [CG]) business students, and additionally tested whether WEIT helped to reduce perceived stress. For EP, WEIT led to a significant increase in the TG directly after training (whereas the wait list CG showed no change). Changes remained stable after 6 weeks in the TG, but there were no significant differences between the TG and CG at follow-up. By contrast, ER did not show an increase directly after WEIT, but 6 weeks later, the TG had larger improvements than the CG. The results mostly confirmed that emotional abilities can be increased through web-based training. Participants’ perceived stress did not decrease after the training program. Further refinement and validation of WEIT is needed.

50 - 70

Authors: Susan Beltman, Kerstin Helker and Sarina Fischer

Peer mentoring programs are commonly used to facilitate the transition of new students into higher education settings. Peer mentors’ experiences and emotions during mentoring are important but under-researched. We report exploratory work to address this gap in a two-phase study using a grounded theory approach. In Phase 1 mentors in an Australian university responded to online (n=35) or face-to-face (n=10) questions about their emotions during a peer mentor program. Emotions were found to be primarily positive, mentors varied in the extent to which they express emotions, and emotions relating to different time points were evident. In Phase 2, we examined temporal dimensions of emotions in more depth with peer mentors in a German university and added anticipated future emotions to existing categories. Connections between mentors’ emotions and their own early experiences at university were explored, with another category of recalled prior emotions being added. Our findings are consistent with previous research regarding the positive and negative emotional aspects of being a peer mentor and further contribute to the understanding of the complexity of emotions in mentoring, specifically peer mentoring in higher education settings.

91 - 105

Authors: Kjersti Balle Tharaldsen

A universal school-based intervention was developed to enhance coping with schoolrelated stress by building students’ social and emotional competence. The intervention was carried out in six classes in three upper secondary schools in southwestern Norway, and covered mindfulness, self-regulated learning, and social competence. Three focus groups were conducted with a stratified selection of general education students (n=24) and one focus group with primary school teachers (n=6). Summative content analysis was conducted using NVivo Software. Findings indicate that the students perceived the core themes useful, and believed that the intervention increased their coping with schoolrelated stress and to some extent improved their learning environment. Teachers’ perceptions supported these findings to some degree. Future directions for universal school-based interventions to build social and emotional competencies are suggested.