International Journal of Emotional Education

4 - 18

Authors: Margarida Gaspar de Matos and Celeste Simões

In addition to the empirical validation of ‘health and happiness’ determinants, theoretical models suggesting where to ground actions are necessary. In the beginning of the twentieth century, intervention models focused on evaluation and empirical validation were only concerned about overt behaviours (verbal and non-verbal) and covert behaviours (cognitions and emotions). Later on in the middle of the century, there was a shift from treating the problems to a positive approach, focused on promoting assets and individual strengths. Thus, the role of social competences, self-regulation and resilience became salient. Researchers also highlighted the importance of social cohesion and social support, as active health and wellbeing facilitators. More recently, in the twenty-first century, the population’s engagement (positive engagement) has become crucial. This paper presents the evolution of this theoretical and scientific path, using Portugal as a case study, where early interventions focused on the positive aspects of both covert and overt behaviours, while more recent interventions included explicitly the perspective of youth engagement and participation, as is the case of the Dream Teens Project. It is expected that the political and professional understanding of this trajectory will allow professionals to provide better health and educational services, improving young people’s engagement, quality of life, health and wellbeing.

35 - 47

Authors: Diego Gomez-Baya, Ramon Mendoza and Susana Paino

Research to date has identified various risk factors in the emergence of depressive disorders in adolescence. There are very few studies, however, which have analyzed the role of perceived emotional intelligence in depressive symptoms longitudinally during adolescence. This work aimed to analyze longitudinal relationships between perceived emotional intelligence and depressive symptoms in adolescence, developing an explanatory model of depression following a one-year follow-up. A longitudinal study was carried out with two waves separated by one year, with a sample of 714 Spanish adolescents. The instruments consisted of self-report measures of depressive symptoms and perceived emotional intelligence. Results underlined gender differences in depressive symptoms and emotional intelligence, and indicated that greater emotional intelligence was associated with a lower presence of depressive symptoms after a one-year follow-up. A multiple partial mediation model was developed to explain longitudinally depressive symptoms based on perceived emotional intelligence skills and depressive symptoms. These contributions underscore the need to design programs to prevent depression in adolescence through the promotion of emotional intelligence.

63 - 74

Authors: Bénédicte Gendron, Eleni-Sofia Kouremenou and Carmen Rusu

The start of university life requires a period of adaptation, which can sometimes have an impact on the mental health of students. The latest results from the Observatoire National de la Vie Etudiante (OVE, 2013) show that more that 40% of university students report symptoms of psychological fragility (sleep problems, fatigue, depression, stress or loneliness), which can impact their level of wellbeing and performance. Beyond Savoirs [knowledge], Savoir Faire [knowing what to do], the role of Savoir Être [knowing how to be] referring to a set of emotional competencies, is crucial in sustaining human capital in a broad sense, personal development and health (Gendron 2004). During the Initiatives d'Excellence en Formations Innovantes (IDEFI) Programme, [Initiatives of Excellence in Innovative Training] 132 first year university students of education underwent an intervention (a minimum of six workshops of four hours) aimed at developing their emotional capital. Using two approaches PIA2 (European Management and Project Management Methodology) and ACT Training derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) the objective was to develop trainees’ social and personal emotional competencies such as self-esteem, self-knowledge, empathy and conflict management. Using an interdisciplinary approach drawing on educational theory, theory of human resources and positive psychology, the results show that emotional capital, developed using positive psychology tools, can improve wellbeing and contribute to a holistic personal development.

95 - 108

Authors: Natalie S. Mikhaylov

This paper explores the role of curiosity in promoting cross-cultural knowledge creation and competence development. It is based on a study with four international higher educational institutions, all of which offer management and business education for local and international students. The reality of multicultural and intercultural relationships is researched using constructivist grounded theory method, with data collected through in-depth interviews, long-term observation and participation, and discussion of the social reality as it was experienced by the participants. The study applies the concepts of cultural knowledge development, cross-cultural competence and cultural distance. Based on the comparative analysis, curiosity emerged as a personal condition conducive to the cultural knowledge development process. The paper presents a crosscultural competence development process model, which takes into account the cultural curiosity of the learners. The paper also provides tentative recommendations for the steps that knowledge-creating multicultural organizations can take to develop cross-cultural exchange, cultural knowledge creation and cross-cultural competence development.

120 - 123

Authors: Kuan-Ling Olivia Lin

Short Research Report

2 - 14

Authors: Donghyun Kim, Jung H. Hyun, Jihee Lee, Jessica Bertolani, Luigina Mortari and John Carey

‘Eccomi Pronto’ (EP), an elementary school socio-emotional learning curriculum that was originally developed and evaluated in Italy was translated in Korean and implemented and evaluated in 4th grade classrooms of a primary school in South Korea. Qualitative data from teachers indicated that EP improved the self-reflection and self-direction of students, resulted in pedagogically useful insights into the psychological functioning of students, and enhanced the quality of teacher-student interaction. However, statistically significant changes in students’ engaged, academic behavior (as measured by an 8-item survey) were not noted. Teachers reported that the core of the EP curriculum was appropriate for the South Korean educational context. Teachers also recommended modifications in the follow-up learning activities to make these activities more consistent with South Korean education practices.

36 - 48

Authors: Gerardo Moreno and Lyndal M. Bullock

Challenging behaviors can significantly alter the learning environment of any classroom. Traditionally, schools have implemented practices that remove the offending student from the classroom, deliver punitive disciplinary actions, or refer the student to special education evaluation. Unfortunately, such practices have demonstrated little longitudinal effectiveness, with detrimental outcomes for the referred student, particularly students from Latino backgrounds. With enrollment projections indicating Latinos will become the majority in U.S. schools, educators are presented with the opportunity to shift away from past practices and implement evidence-based practices that concurrently assist students while addressing challenging behaviors. In this paper, the authors discuss past disciplinary practices, the adverse effects on Latino students, and offer recommendations on implementing functional behavioral assessment as a means to better meet the needs of Latino students demonstrating challenging behaviors.

63 - 65

Authors: Short Research Report: A Comparison of Emotional Intelligence Levels between Students in Experiential and Didactic College Programs

Short Research Report

4 - 19

Authors: Helen Monks, Patricia Cardoso, Alana Papageorgiou, Catherine Carolan, Leesa Costello and Laura Thomas

Social media is a central component in the lives of many young people, and provides innovative potential to conduct research among this population. Ethical issues around online research have been subject to much debate, yet young people have seldom been consulted to provide a youth perspective and voice. Eight (8) focus groups involving 48 Grade 9 Western Australian secondary school students aged 13-14 years were held in 2012, to investigate how young people perceive the feasibility and acceptability of social media when used as a research tool to investigate various issues relevant to their mental health and wellbeing. Whilst young people recognise many benefits of researchers using social media in this way, such as its relevance, innovation and accessibility, there were salient issues of privacy, consent, and practicality that require careful negotiation. There is a need for continued exploration and scientific debate of the moral and ethical implications of using social media for research, to help ensure this is employed in an appropriate and effective way that is respectful of and sensitive to the needs and views of young people.

35 - 51

Authors: Donna Cross, Leanne Lester, Amy Barnes, Patricia Cardoso and Kate Hadwen

This study reports on a three-year group randomized controlled trial, the Cyber Friendly Schools Project (CFSP), aimed to reduce cyberbullying among grade 8 students during 2010-2012. In each year, 14-15 year old student ‘cyber’ leaders acted as catalysts to develop and implement whole-school activities to reduce cyberbullying-related harms. This paper examines students’ leadership experiences and the effectiveness of their training and intervention efforts. A mixed methods research design comprising interviews and questionnaires was used to collect data from 225 grade 10 students at the end of their leadership years (2010 & 2011). Four to six cyber leaders were recruited from each of the 19 intervention schools involved in each year of the study. The cyber leaders reported high self-efficacy post-training, felt their intervention efforts made a difference, and experienced a sense of agency, belonging and competence when given opportunities for authentic leadership. They identified key barriers and enablers to achieving desired outcomes. Students greatly valued having their voices heard. Their engagement in the development and delivery of whole-school strategies allowed them to contribute to and enhance efforts to promote their peers’ mental health and wellbeing. However, a lack of support from school staff limits students’ effectiveness as change-enablers.

69 - 83

Authors: Antonella Brighi, Chiara Mazzanti, Annalisa Guarini and Alessandra Sansavini

A considerable amount of research has examined the link between children’s peer acceptance, which refers to the degree of likability within the peer group, social functioning and emotional wellbeing, at a same age and in a long term perspective, pointing out to the contribution of peer acceptance for mental wellbeing. Our study proposes a sociometric methodology that, differently from many studies focused on individual classifications of social status, moves to the analysis of affiliative social networks within the class group. This study describes how individual factors such as socio-emotional competence, temperament, and linguistic skills are related to positive reciprocated nominations (=RNs) and examines the cliques generated by reciprocal nominations according to similarities (socio-emotional competence, temperament and linguistic skills) among cliques’ members. Eighty-four preschool children (M age = 62.5 months) were recruited. The Sociometric Interview to assess RNs and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (PPVT-R; Dunn & Dunn, 1981) to assess receptive language were administered; the Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation Short Form questionnaire (SCBE-30; LaFreniere & Dumas, 1996) and the Quit Temperament Scale (Axia, 2002) were filled in by the teachers. Results showed that children with higher RNs presented higher scores in social orientation, positive emotionality, motor activity, linguistic skills and social competence (trend), and exhibited lower anxiety-withdrawal. The analysis of cliques revealed that children preferred playmates with similar features: social competence, anger-aggression (trend), social orientation, positive emotionality, inhibition to novelty, attention, motor activity (trend) and linguistic skills. These findings provide insights about processes of peer affiliation, highlighting the role of socio-emotional functioning and linguistic skills.

3 - 20

Authors: Sofia Triliva, Tanya Anagnostopoulou and Georgios Vleioras

This paper describes and discusses the results of an intervention aiming to sensitize children to the social and emotional processes involved in racism. The intervention was applied and evaluated in 10 Greek elementary schools. The goals and the intervention methods of the program modules are briefly outlined and the results of the program evaluation are elaborated and discussed. Two-hundred students participated in the program and 180 took part in the pre-and-post-testing which assessed their ability to identify emotions associated with prejudice, discrimination and stereotypical thinking; to understand similarities and differences between people; and to develop perspective taking and empathic skills in relation to diverse others. Results indicate gains in all three areas of assessment although the increased ability to identify similarities between people can also be attributed to age/grade effects. The implications of the findings are discussed with regard to antiracism intervention methods and evaluation strategies.

40 - 53

Authors: Christopher Donoghue, Angela Almeida, David Brandwein, Gabriela Rocha and Ian Callahan

Becoming a victim of verbal and social bullying in middle school can lead to illness, psychological stress, and maladjustment. The coping strategies that students utilize when they are bullied may influence the likelihood and severity of these negative effects. In this study, we examined the predictions made by students in two middle schools about the ways that they would cope with becoming a victim of verbal and social bullying. We also analyzed influences for coping strategies and student willingness to seek help with bullying at school. The results show that middle school students generally expect that they will utilize adaptive approach strategies in trying to solve the problem or obtain support from others, but those who had been victimized in the last month were more likely than those not involved in bullying, to predict that they would engage in maladaptive avoidance coping strategies if victimized in the future. Willingness to seek help was found to be enhanced by approach coping strategies, less aggressive attitudes, and lower perceptions of school bullying. Policy implications for efforts to encourage approach coping strategies in middle school students through educational interventions and school counseling are discussed.

69 - 85

Authors: Jonathan Camenzuli and Michael A. Buhagiar

This paper, which draws on action research methodology, explores the use of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in the teaching of mathematics to students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD). The year-long study was conducted in a Form 3 secondary class that grouped 13 male students with SEBD in a Maltese secondary school. After first creating an IBL-friendly classroom environment in the initial months, the actual implementation of IBL pedagogy in class began in the second term and spread over a 15 week period. The data included teacher observations that were recorded in a reflective research journal, two sessions of in-depth interviews with students, student journal writing, samples of students’ work and student marks in the school-based half-yearly and annual mathematics examinations. The findings indicate that the use of IBL in the mathematics classroom can benefit students with SEBD in a number of ways. These include infusing a sense of enjoyment during lessons, improved student behaviour and motivation to learn, and facilitating the learning of mathematics which generally translated in higher achievement levels.

90 - 94

Authors: Paul Cooper

Short discussion paper 2

4 -13

Authors: Knut K. Gundersen

When we measure social competence, the scores indicate that a person can become better and better just as in other school subjects such as history or geography. In general, these scores also give an actual picture of the status and/or progress of the person’s social competence. However, it might be preferable to portray many of the dimensions of social competence as a continuum where the optimal level could be in the middle rather than at one of the ends. That is to say, social initiatives could take place too often or too seldom, or a person could take others’ needs into consideration too little, but also too much, to the detriment of his or her own needs. This implies that the overall purpose in a training social and emotional learning program might at the same time involve training some participants to do less of something and others to do more. The present article reflects on different continua involved in social competence training and suggests that the facilitator needs to analyse the needs of each of the participants in a group and adapt the training program accordingly. The implications for conducting a program, composition of programs and for the training of facilitators are also discussed.

25 - 32

Authors: Helen Cowie

Research into school bullying has traditionally focussed on the actual protagonists – the perpetrators and the targets. Consequently, we know a great deal about the psychological characteristics of bullies and victims and the consequences of bullying in undermining the emotional well-being of both targets and perpetrators. While an understanding of the personal aspects of the bully-victim relationship is important, it only addresses part of the issue. Bullying is experienced within a group of peers who adopt different participant roles and who experience a range of emotions. In this article, I argue that bullies do not act alone but rely on reinforcement from their immediate group of friends as well as the tacit approval of the onlookers. This article explores the conflicting emotions often experienced by the bystanders. It also makes some suggestions about interventions to empower bystanders to take action against bullying through, for example, such interventions as peer support.

47 - 65

Authors: William G. Nicoll

For the better part of the past century, the field of education has witnessed repeated calls and initiatives for change, reform and improvement of our schools. Yet today, the problems of improving academic achievement and social adjustment among youth continue unabated. An explanation for this ‘change without change’ phenomenon is offered which differentiates innovative change from transformative change processes. A review of the research evidence regarding resilience and positive youth development, both academically and socially, is utilized to formulate a conceptual framework for guiding educators in creating resilience-focused, transformative schools. Specific attention is addressed to the application of such concepts as mindsets, resilience, social-emotional competencies, and supportive social environments (family and school) in adopting a new, transformative paradigm for developing more effective schools and more capable youth.

76 - 94

Authors: Wendy Turner

In the UK policies such as the Children’s Plan 2008 -2020 through to Promoting the Emotional Health of Children and Young People (2010) identify that professionals such as teachers, youth workers, social workers and youth offending specialists, do not have the necessary underpinning knowledge to adequately support children and young people’s emotional well-being. Further that these professionals fail to recognise when a child or young person may need additional help. These findings suggest that gaining knowledge and understanding of emotional well-being for children and young people is a key requirement for those working in this field. This paper is an evaluation of an initiative that saw a partnership of developing joint learning materials from expert emotional well-being organisations being delivered as part of an undergraduate award at a traditional Higher Educational (HE) Institution. The evaluation showed that the introduction of interactive, e-learning materials, supplemented with role play and scenario based learning and running concurrently alongside work experiences enabled students to acquire and apply knowledge and understanding of emotional well-being for children and young people to real situations, and thus bridged the ‘practice –theory gap’.