The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships between personal responsibility, emotional intelligence and self-esteem in adolescents and young adults and explore the psychometric properties of the Personal Responsibility Questionnaire. One hundred and fifty high school students and 186 university students completed self-report questionnaires examining personal responsibility, emotional intelligence and self-esteem. Results revealed that older students reported higher levels of personal responsibility, emotional intelligence and self-esteem than the Year 11 students. The Personal Responsibility Questionnaire was found to significantly correlate with emotional intelligence and self-esteem suggesting strong construct validity.

The present research investigated the relationship between extra-curricular involvement (ECI) and self-regulated behaviours in 8 to 9 year old children, and identified sex, location, and socio-economic status (SES) differences in their ECI and self-regulatory behaviours. 550 children from 44 schools in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia completed the Child Self-Regulatory Process Inventory and questions about their ECI. Nearly 90% of students were involved in at least one extra-curricular activity with the mean number of activities being 1.27. Girls and urban children were significantly more involved in school-based extra-curricular activities than their male and rural counterparts; there were no significant differences among SES groups. Urban children and children in the high SES group reported significantly greater involvement for non-school based activities. For the three self-regulation strategies, girls scored significantly higher than boys. Moreover, children in the high ECI group reported significantly greater use of self-regulation strategies than children in the low ECI group and were more efficacious-persistent than children in both the low and medium ECI groups. implications of findings are discussed in light of the need for quality extra-curricular programs, especially in terms of emotional climate and self-directed activities.

Self-ranking of results on tests of reading, strength, dexterity, and grip in educational and vocational guidance were compared with test Performance for 49 adults undergoing educational and vocational guidance. Only some self-rankings were significantly correlated with the ranking of the standardised results. There were no influences of age, gender or years of schooling on self-ranking but there were marked inter-individual differences in the accuracy of self-assessment. The results have implications for the use of self-assessment in an educational context.

Cyber-bullying has emerged as the latest Permutation of school bullying. The growing number and the level of severity of cyber-bullying call for our educators, researchers, administrators, and authorities to take action. But before we can tackle this problem, a better understanding of the issue and how we can best support students is necessary. This study of 652 young people aged 11–17 years from Melbourne independent and state government schools, provides data on bullying that uses information and communication technologies (cyber-bullying), general bullying, and overall patterns of coping. Results revealed significant gender and school differences – with girls from independent schools reporting more cyber-bullying problems. These findings contrast with those of ‘real-world’(general) school bullying. Further analyses suggest that young people who are persistently victimised have most likely exhausted their strategies for responding. Of note, apprehensive and avoidant coping profiles exemplified girls reporting greater levels of cyber-bullying while boys reporting cyber-bullying problems were characterized by apprehensive, but active coping actions. The findings offer clear avenues of support for school practitioners and may also facilitate the identification of young people who are at high risk for negative outcomes.

Investigation into positive youth development has led researchers to focus on the context of leisure as one that provides youth with opportunities to develop the skills and competencies desired for successful adulthood. This study surveyed 53 (14 males, 39 females, mean age 14.6) Western Australian high school students using an adapted version of the Youth Experience Survey (YES) 2.0. Participants were asked to report their perceived developmental experiences in both structured and unstructured activities across 2 domains: identity work and initiative development. Structured activities were found to offer adolescents more opportunities for the development of initiative than unstructured activities. In addition more adult involvement was found to be associated with higher levels of both identity work and initiative development experiences. No differences were found in developmental experiences between different structured activities. However comparisons among different unstructured activities suggest that some forms of unstructured leisure may be particularly beneficial to youth development Unstructured activities such as hobbies and unstructured sports offered adolescents more initiative and identity experiences than alternate unstructured activities such as media use and communication activities. Results are discussed in reference to theories of initiative development and the implications to the wider community.

Two key assumptions fundamental to theories and research that explain the learning of tertiary students is that students readily know and can articulate which behaviours of academics positively influence their learning. In this study open-ended questions were used to elicit responses from 200 students, one group enrolled in psychology as a major, and another group studying psychology units as an elective. Results showed that there was no difference in the perceptions of students as a function of their major in psychology. Clear and professional delivery of material was most frequently identified as best practice for academics. Students knew this because it was most frequently associated with student understanding and performance. The teaching approach of academics and the aids to learning used by academics were nominated most frequently as staff activities that enhanced student learning. Students knew this was effective because it enhanced understanding and performance and because of the provision of information from staff. It was suggested that academics could be more effective and students would learn more effectively if lectures and tutorials were delivered more carefully and facilities and aids were improved. For each question, between 12% to 40% of respondents did not know how to appropriately respond. The discussion focused on the meaning of the no responses, the identified factors of instructional metacognitive knowledge, the areas that academics might improve, and the necessity for instructional metacognitive knowledge to accompany information transferred in lectures and tutorials.