The Construct Validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Aboriginal Children Living in Urban New South Wales,Australia

The current study explores the construct validity of the standard Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) for Aboriginal children living in urban communities in New South Wales, Australia. Parent report SDQ data from the first 717 Aboriginal children aged 4–17 years who participated in the baseline survey of the Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Child Health were analysed. The overall construct validity of the SDQ in our sample was acceptable but not “good.” The internal consistency reliability was excellent overall and good for all subscales with the exception of peer problems, a concept that may have a different significance for urban Aboriginal parents. Removing the peer relationships subscale, however, did not improve the fit of the model. The convergent validity of the SDQ was good. The prosocial behaviours scale and both the peer and conduct problems scales were highly correlated suggesting Aboriginal parents conceptualise these differently and that prosocial behaviours may be considered a key indicator of well‐being for Aboriginal children. Overall, the SDQ is a promising tool for urban Aboriginal children in New South Wales. Those working with Aboriginal young people should focus on the SDQ total difficulties score and limit their reliance on the peer relationships subscale.     

Democratisation of wellbeing: stakeholder perspectives on policy priorities for improving national wellbeing through paid employment and adult learning

Recent policy initiatives in the UK have heightened the degree to which wellbeing can be considered a political construct: The acceptance of different policy options for wellbeing depends on the extent to which those options are responsive to popular wellbeing concerns. Drawing on the views of over 400 people gathered through a variety of methods and across the UK, we outline different stakeholder views of what wellbeing is and the priorities that stakeholders believe should be addressed to improve wellbeing. We draw out the implications for reframing policy debates around wellbeing, the practice of career guidance, academic debates around identified wellbeing priorities, and the best means of developing a policy and a practice-oriented and stakeholder-responsive approach to researching wellbeing.     

Examining adversarial growth in illness: The factor structure of the silver lining questionnaire (SLQ-38)

The Silver Lining Questionnaire (SLQ-38) is purported to measure 10 aspects of adversarial growth in illness. To date however, no empirical evidence exists to support this claim. Hence the aim of this study was to investigate the factor structure of the SLQ-38 in a sample of 560 individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), cancer, cardiac, and renal disease. The results demonstrate that 24 SLQ-38 items can be factored into five subscales: improved personal relationships, greater appreciation for life, positive influence on others, personal inner strength and changes in life philosophy, all of which are in accordance with the literature on adversarial growth. Individuals with MS experienced lower adversarial growth compared to other illness groups. Gender, age and time since diagnosis were unrelated to adversarial growth in illness. The utility of the revised SLQ-38 is discussed along with suggestions for future research on the convergent and divergent validity of this revised instrument.     

What you know can hurt you: effects of age and prior knowledge on the accuracy of judgments of learning

How do aging and prior knowledge affect memory and metamemory? We explored this question in the context of a dual-process approach to Judgments of Learning (JOLs), which require people to predict their ability to remember information at a later time. Young and older adults (n = 36, mean ages = 20.2 & 73.1) studied the names of actors who were famous in the 1950s or 1990s, providing a JOL for each. Recognition memory for studied and unstudied actors was then assessed using a Recollect/Know/No-Memory (R/K/N) judgment task. Results showed that prior knowledge increased recollection in both age groups such that older adults recollected significantly more 1950s actors than younger adults. Also, for both age groups and both decades, actors judged R at test garnered significantly higher JOLs at study than actors judged K or N. However, while the young showed benefits of prior knowledge on relative JOL accuracy, older adults did not, showing lower levels of JOL accuracy for 1950s actors despite having higher recollection for, and knowledge about, those actors. Overall, the data suggest that prior knowledge can be a double-edged sword, increasing the availability of details that can support later recollection, but also increasing nondiagnostic feelings of familiarity that can reduce the accuracy of memory predictions.     

An experimental approach towards the evaluation of a seat belt campaign with an inside view on the psychology behind seat belt use

A Belgian national safety belt campaign was evaluated by means of a questionnaire survey in an adolescent sample. The evaluation was done through a three group after-only design with the use of one control group and two experimental groups. The first experimental group, the attentive group, was exposed to the campaign material in a very direct, attentive way, whereas the second experimental group, the pre-attentive group, was exposed rather inattentively. The framework of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was applied and extended with a habit and a past behaviour variable in order to verify whether seat belt usage is to be understood as an automaticity mechanism (i.e., habitual or repeated past behaviour) or as planned behaviour. In terms of campaign effect, the comparison of the pre-attentive group and the control group revealed no significant differences. However, the attentive group and the control group differed significantly regarding two basic dimensions of perceived behavioural control (i.e., confidence and motivation), habit, past behaviour, behavioural intention and behaviour. In terms of explaining seat belt usage, linear regression models were fitted and gave most support for the repeated past behaviour approach. According to the latter, using seat belts is recycling an originally reasoned behaviour, yet without systematically going through the whole underlying reasoning every time a situation in which the decision to wear a seat belt (or not) presents itself. The practical implications of these findings are discussed more in detail.     

Match making and match breaking: The nature of match within and around job design

We explore the notion of ‘match’. In the context of job design, this is congruence or correspondence between two or more job characteristics (e.g. cognitive demands and cognitive control). This congruence is thought to benefit health, well‐being, and performance. The origins of the match concept lie in buffering models of work stress, where resources such as workplace social support and job control are thought to attenuate deleterious effects of adverse job characteristics like excessive job demands. We outline the historical developments in work stress research that has led to notions of match, contrast match with the related concept of person‐environment fit, explore current conceptualizations and operationalizations of match, and outline how the concept of match can be developed.     

How do work stress and coping work? Toward a fundamental theoretical reappraisal

The main aim of this paper is to make the case for why a fundamental reappraisal rather than incremental development of work stress and coping theory is required. In order to do this we present, in simplified form, some of the basic tenets of theory in this field. These tenets are questioned and their limitations identified in two ways. The first way is through contrasting the sort of stories that emerge in counselling and psychotherapy about the causes of people's distress with the simplified accounts found in stress and coping theory. The second way is through a critical examination of the specific ideas that stressors are 'out there' in the work environment and that individuals go through a simple process of primary and secondary appraisal when dealing with potentially harmful aspects of the work environment. Drawing on the notion of the employee as an active crafter and shaper of their job and data showing the complex ways in which people make sense of potentially negative work circumstances, we show how these ideas are of very limited value. In conclusion, we suggest that these limitations are so serious that fundamental reappraisal rather than development is required.     

Student teachers’ competence and career certainty: the effects of career anxiety and perceived control

In comparison to other professional faculties, student teachers are less certain about their career decisions. Consequently, examining the factors that influence their perceptions of career competence and certainty may be beneficial for their professional development. We examined how student teachers’ (n = 194) gender, grade of instruction, practicum, career anxiety, and perceived control affected their career competence and certainty. Anxiety had large and negative effects on competence and certainty. In contrast, primary control enhanced competence whereas secondary control enhanced certainty. High-practicum ratings were also associated with greater competence and certainty; however, these effects were mediated by anxiety and perceived control. These findings help us understand the transition that student teachers make from studentship to becoming professional teachers.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Sport Participation, Peer Acceptance, and Self-esteem among Adolescent Girls and Boys

The present investigation was designed to explore the relations between sport participation, peer acceptance, and global self-esteem. Peer acceptance was considered as a possible mediator of the relationship between sport participation and global self-esteem. The sample included girls (N?=?4,689) and boys (N?=?5,811) between the ages of 12 and 21 (M?=?15 years) who were part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Analyses revealed that peer acceptance partially mediated the relation between sport participation and global self-esteem for girls as well as boys. Findings suggest the importance of considering how sport participation and self-evaluations in particular domains may contribute to global feelings of self-worth. The role of peers in this relationship is discussed in relation to changing social attitudes about girls’ sport participation.