Welcome to the first edition of the journal for 2016. Unfortunately the special edition on Developmental Disability is delayed and will be published in the next issue. However, there are many interesting papers which I hope you will enjoy reading and be useful for your practice in this edition.
The first three papers are about parents; parents and homework, parents and mental health initiatives in schools and parents and student school connectedness. The first paper is by Judith Locke, David Kavanagh and Marilyn Campbell looking at the contentious issue of homework. This study examined how parents who self-reported high levels of parental involvement (often called overparenting) tended to take more personal responsibility for their child's homework and ascribe greater responsibility to the child's teacher for homework completion as well. The sample for this study was drawn from P-12 schools, so a large range of parents was included. The second paper by Helen Askell-Williams describes a study about parents’ perceptions of the quality of their child's school's initiatives for promoting students’ well-being and mental health. It was found that parents who self-reported low parenting capabilities also held lower perceptions of their child's school's mental health promotion. The third parenting paper is by Emma Murphy and Vicki McKenzie. Examining school connectedness it was found that students from 10-12-years-old with negative perceptions of their family functioning also had a lower sense of mastery, optimism and self-efficacy. However, it was also found that school connectedness appeared to be a protective factor against the influence of poor family functioning with school connectedness partially mediating the relationship between family function and a sense of mastery.
The following paper by Stephen Houghton, John Hattie, Annemaree Carroll, Lisa Wood and Bernard Baffour looks at a topic which is not often considered by guidance counsellors, one of loneliness of students. Loneliness is often seen as a by-product of other conditions and not one to be addressed and researched in its own right. With 30% of adolescents experiencing chronic loneliness with adverse mental health outcomes it is however, an important topic. In this study it was found that the quality of adolescents’ friendships was paramount, not how many friends they had but feeling isolated without friends lead to poor mental health.
Brett Furlonger and Sonja Budisa’ paper evaluated the quality and credibility of internet sites and apps for mental health assistance for young people. Unfortunately they found that of the 69 internet sites only 5 were acceptable and only 8 out of the 30 apps. Although we know these sites and apps appeal to students because of their convenience and accessibility as psychologists and counsellors we need to work with teachers in promoting students’ digital literacy. The next paper addresses the issue of why as school psychologists and counsellors we are not seeing more primary school students who are excessively anxious as anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychopathology in this population. Drawing on previous research which shows primary school teachers do understand excessive anxiety in students, Kaitlin Hinchliffe and Marilyn Campbell researched the tipping points for teachers in referring these students. They found that both teacher- and system-level influences impacted on their referral decisions.
The last paper looks at adolescent drinking behaviour and delinquent behaviour. Angela Curcio and Anita Mak surveyed 312 Australian secondary school students about their alcohol use and deviant behaviours. It was found that there were no differences between boy's and girls’ problem alcohol drinking and self-reported delinquent behaviour. There was a moderate to strong association between alcohol use and delinquent activities including theft, fighting, drug use, illegal driving, cyberbullying and school truancy.
There is still time if you wish to contribute to the next edition on Developmental Disability and I'm sure Professor Linda Gilmore would welcome such papers, either as research or particularly practitioner's papers.
