A number of reviews and meta-analyses in the past 30 years have described and evaluated interventions designed to enhance ocademic performance in university undergraduates. Reviewers’recommendations, however, have often remained unimplemented. This meta-review of reviews and meta-analyses of interventions published in the academic literature between 1969 and 1999 was aimed to determine which kinds of interventions have been successful in enhancing academic performance, to identify methodological shortcomings, and to suggest directions for future research and teaching practice. It was found that interventions are often successful at enhancing performance, with the recent trend towards cognitive-behavioural or metacognitive interventions showing most promise. However, there are widespread methodological shortcomings in the reviewed literature. Key recommendations for future research include random allocotion to treatment and control groups, the use of volunteer populations, exclusion of first semester students as research participants, use of nonanalogue outcome measures, and reporting of effect sizes rather than reliance solely on statistical significance as the index of success. A teaching style that fosters the use of metacognitive and self-directed learning strategies may further enhance contemporary teaching practice.

This study examined academic stress in female Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) students in terms of somatic symptoms and mood disturbance before, during, and after the midyear examination period and also examined the role of self-efficacy, number of social supports, social support satisfaction, and health behaviours in mediating the effects of stress on symptoms and mood disturbance. It was hypothesised that (a) student would report increased somatic symptoms and mood disturbance during the examination period and that (b) self-efficacy, social support (number and satisfaction), and health behaviours would account for a significant proportion of variance for somatic symptoms and mood disturbance before, during, and after the exam period. The participants were 51 VCE students from a large Catholic girls’secondary college in Melbourne. Four weeks before the exam period, the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale, Reported Health Behaviours Checklist, Short Form Social Support Questionnaire, Symptoms Checklist, and Profile of Mood States were administered.The Symptoms Checklist and Profile of Mood States were administered again during the exam week and four weeks after the exam period. Statistical analyses showed that the VCE examination period was associated with significantly increased self-reports of somatic symptoms and mood disturbances that were strongly indicative of high levels of stress. Self-efficacy was found to have a weak role in mediating the stress response during the exam week. Social support did not account for any of the variation in academic stress. Health behaviours accounted for a small but significant proportion of the variance in stress after the exam period. It was concluded that there is a need to study other factors that may attenuate the academic stress response in adolescent secondary school students. The perceptual and cognitive appraisal of academic stressors is suggested as an area that may be worthy of examination.The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of the impact that academic stress may have on adolescents’ health during this critical period of development.

Adolescents who are coping with their final years of secondary schooling may be stressed. The Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) has been the subject of considerable anecdotal controversy, including concerns over the level of stress that it places upon students and its effect on students’overall well-being. The present study provides some initial empirical data to inform this debate. The Australian Adolescent Problems Inventory, the Adolescent Coping Inventory, and the General Health Questionnaire were used to examine the constructs of school-related stress, coping, and well-being in 118 Year II Victorian secondary school students. Students reported a range of school-related problems. They coped by positive avoidance or problem-focused methods that promoted independence. Students reported feeling high levels of global stress. Anticipation of the final year of schooling placed pressure on young people, but students found several ways to cope with the demands. Therefore, it could not be concluded that the Victorian Certificate of Education was significantly related to unhealthy levels of stress, worry, and poor coping.

This study compared perceptions of the school environment, coping and enacted support between Year 10 students identified as educationally at risk (n = 31) and a comparison group of students in the same year level (n = 97), at two periods in the school term. At-risk students perceived the school environment to show significantly less concern for students and used problem-focused coping less frequently than did comparison students. Regardless of risk status, girls used social support more frequently than boys did. At-risk girls accessed peer support more than family support ond also frequently contacted school counsellors to discuss problems. At-risk boys rarely sought support from anyone. Implications for school support programs are twofold. Teachers may need additional professional training in how to employ socially supportive practices. In addition, school counsellors may need to foster informal opportunities for social participation, in order to connect vulnerable boys to peers and adults.

Little is known about individual differences in homeless young women.The aim of this study was to investigate these differences in an Australian context and to examine specifially the impact of level of completed education and length of time spent homeless.Two groups of homeless young women aged between 16 and 19 years were contacted through outreach, housing, and juvenile justice workers. A conduct disordered (CD) group (n = 15) and a not-conduct disordered (NCD) group (n = 16) completed a demographic questionnaire as well as six CPI subscales of responsibility, socialization, tolerance, achievement via conformance, good impression, and well-being. Their CPI profiles were significantly lower and different in pattern to an American female CD profile. A one-way MANOVA showed that the CD group had lower mean scores on all subscales than the NCD group. Logistic regression showed that the socialization subscale predicted group membership. Socialization differences between CD and NCD groups of homeless young women were linked to level of completed educotion rather than to length of time out of home. Higher levels of completed education were associated with absence of conduct disorder and greater socialization. These results support previous research showing that homeless young women are at risk of endangering their physical and psychosocial health.This research also reveals that extra time spent at school can mediate these effects.

The present study examined the effect of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) on child and adolescent sibling relationships. In previous research on adult OCD, siblings of OCD sufferers showed a high level of occommodotion to obsessive-compulsive symptoms and subsequent depression. No research has been conducted on the effect of OCD on child and adolescent sibling relationships. This small but important pilot study investigated sibling accommodation to obsessive-compulsive symptoms, sibling relationship quality, and depression and anxiety in siblings of children who have OCD. The study had two components. First, siblings of children with OCD were examined before and after a 14-week treatment program for OCD. Second, these siblings were compared at prebefore treatment with a comparison group of siblings whose brother or sister did not meet diagnostic criteria for either OCD or any other childhood disorders (i.e., comparison group). Three outcomes were noted. Siblings of OCD children accommodated to obsessive-compulsive symptoms and were distressed by the presence of OCD in their brother or sister. Furthermore, the quality of sibling relationships in OCD families improved with successful treatment of OCD. Finally, anxiety and depression were higher in siblings of an OCD child or adolescent, compared to siblings in the comparison group. Given the significant impact that OCD has on the sibling relationship, implications for family-based treatment, incorporating a sibling support component, are addressed.

This study investigates the effect of a coping skills program “The Best of Coping” on adolescents’ coping style and self-efficacy and highlights a model of program delivery through the collaboration of school staff and a school psychologist Eighty-eight adolescents were recruited from a Melbourne suburb and divided into treatment and control groups, with the treatment group receiving the program. All participants completed the Adolescent Coping Scale and Perceived Control of Internal States questionnaires prior to and after the program was conducted. Results showed significant decreases in nonproductive coping and increases in self-efficacy for the treatment group postprogram and a trend indicating increases in productive coping. The findings are discussed with regard to the need to implement programs that can teach adolescents optimism and problem-solving skills so that they may handle problems and stressors more effectively. With the increase in depression and suicide rates, the need to provide school based programs is discussed, with particular emphasis placed on program implementation by collaboration of the school psychologist with teachers.

This study evaluated a training program in conflict resolution based on the Conflict Resolution Model (Littlefield, Love, Peck, & Wertheim, 1993). Forty-eight participants were recruited from a secondary school in Hobart and allocated to a trained or untrained condition. Trained participants received twelve hours of conflict resolution training over a 3-week period. During the assessment phase, participants were tested in one of three dyad types (trained-trained, trained-untrained, or untrained-untrained) and interacted to make a joint recommendation on an issue about which they held opposing views. The interactions were audiotaped and rated by two raters on four process measures and an outcome measure. Skills of porticipants were also assessed with a questionnaire. Significant increases were found for the trained participants on all measures. These results support the use of the Conflict Resolution Model for training programs.

As our society becomes increasingly aware of the alarmingly high rates of sexual crimes in the community, it is also “facing up to” the unpleasant truth that adolescents perpetrate a significant proportion of these crimes. During the last 20 years, there has been a trend toward the provision of early intervention programs for adolescents who have committed sexual offences.The most recent of these programs in Australia is the Griffith Adolescent Forensic Assessment and Treatment Centre. The centre is a joint initiative of Grifith University and the Queensland Department of Families. The program is a community safety initiative aimed at reducing the level of sexual assault in the community through effective intervention and supervision ofyoung people who hove committed sexual offences. This article describes the program, the treatment philosophy thot underpins it, and the potential that the program has for research into this disturbing and complex phenomenon.