Teacher Job Stress and Satisfaction in Urban Schools: Disentangling Individual-, Classroom-, and Organizational-Level Influences

Schools remain among the most frequent providers of children’s mental health services, particularly in low-income urban settings. Several decades of research have focused on training teachers to implement evidence-based interventions for minimizing disruptive behavior. Studies consistently demonstrate robust improvements in student behavior and learning; however, the impact on teachers’ work-related stress or satisfaction is not well understood. Six urban, high-poverty elementary schools were randomly assigned to a school mental health services model (Links to Learning; L2L) for referred, disruptive students or to services and professional development as usual (SAU). Teachers (n = 71, K-4 general education teachers) in L2L schools participated in professional development and consultation in two universal and two targeted interventions to reduce disruptive behaviors and promote learning. Teachers (n = 65) in SAU schools participated in professional development as usual. Multiple regression models examined teacher reports of individual-level self-efficacy, classroom-level student functioning, and school-level organizational health as predictors of stress and satisfaction. Findings revealed no significant difference between conditions on teacher work-related stress or satisfaction. Organizational health was the strongest predictor of stress and satisfaction. Training on and implementation of evidence-based classroom interventions did not appear to significantly impact teachers’ work-related stress or satisfaction. Instead, findings point to organizational climate and teacher connectedness as potential levers for change, supporting prior work on teacher stress and satisfaction in schools. The significance of targeting organizational factors may be particularly significant in urban school districts.     

How do the victims respond to bullying?

Reactions to harassment of victims of bullying were studied. One issue was, what kind of behavior on the part of the victim is likely to a) make the others start or continue bullying or b) diminish bullying or put an end to it. Altogether 573 pupils (286 girls, 287 boys) from 11 Finnish schools served as subjects: 67 of them (33 girls, 34 boys) were identified as victims of bullying. Both peer- and self-evaluations were used as methods of the study. Three subscales, describing counteraggressive, helpless, and nonchalant behavioral responses to bullying were established on the basis of peer-evaluations of the victims' behavior. Three different subtypes of victims (the Counteraggressive, the Helpless, and the Nonchalant) were identified. Helplessness and nonchalance were found to be typical responses of the girl victims, while boy victims tended to react to bullying with counteraggression or nonchalance. The victims' self-evaluations of their behavior supported these views. Helplessness and counteraggression in the case of girl victims and counteraggression in the case of boy victims were perceived as making the bullying start or continue. The absence of helplessness in the case of girl victims, and nonchalance as well as the absence of counteraggression in the case of boy victims were perceived as making the bullying diminish or stop. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Introducing systems change in the schools: the case of school luncheons and vending machines

A major public health crisis facing America’s society is the increase in child and youth obesity, which has seen a fourfold increase in the last four decades. Major concerns include what children eat for school lunch and what other foods are available in schools. This paper illustrates efforts towards systems change in the luncheon program and food vending machines in the Chicago Public Schools. We discuss the different factors that lead to such changes using the framework of the social ecological model and the soft systems methodology, and we analyze how the resulting innovation was implemented and evaluated. First, we present a theoretical perspective to explain factors that influence children’s eating patterns from a systems approach. Second, we discuss the antecedent factors that lead to systems change. Finally, we examine challenges to systems change, such as resistance to change, different stakeholder priorities, lack of resources, institutional bureaucracy, and unrealistic funder expectations.     

穿衣之道:诸子争辩的一个话题

文章讨论先秦诸子关于服饰问题的争论。在儒、道、墨三家特定的服饰背后,包含着一整套的观念系统。穿着本身,成为一种姿态,一种体现其学术宗旨的象征。     

"I would do anything for my child, even quit tobacco": Bonus effects from an intervention that targets adolescent tobacco use

This paper aims to assess program bonus effects on adult tobacco use from a long-term intervention that targeted adolescent tobacco use. The school-based community intervention started in Västerbotten County in Sweden in 1993 and adults were invited to support adolescents to stay tobacco-free. It was combined with repeated cross-sectional surveys in schools annually 1994–99 among grades 7–9 and after 1999 every second year. Participating schools were randomly selected before the first survey representing both rural and urban settings. Out of 4,055 students, 1,008 (24.8%) reported that their supporting adult had been a tobacco user who quit tobacco in order to be allowed to participate. Out of these, 13.2% used tobacco daily before joining. The remaining 2,997 students' adult partners were not tobacco users. Engaging tobacco using adults as partners in interventions targeting adolescent tobacco use seem to have a considerable tobacco-reducing bonus effect in the adults.     

高校学生管理中人本管理伦理探论

在高校学生管理中,贯彻以人为本的思想,进行人本管理,就是要把以学生为中心、为学生服务作为高校学生管理的出发点和归宿点,通过教学、管理、服务诸环节,真正做到以人为本,教书育人,为社会主义现代化建设培养高素质的人才。高校学生管理的模式及其质量关系到高等学校教育的社会功能和道德价值的发挥。因此坚持人本原则,贯彻科学发展观,搞好学生管理是高校学生管理者的重要职责。     

Peaceful schools

This article is based on the presentation Anna Lubelska made at the 12th International Conference on Children’s Spirituality. Anna is Director of Spiritual England which is a not for profit organisation set up in 2009. Its aim is to promote the importance of spirituality and to help increase access to opportunities for spiritual development. Its remit covers spirituality in all faiths and no faith. Anna worked for many years in community development and services for children and families. This year she started the Peaceful Schools Movement which encourages schools to become more peaceful. For example, schools are enabled to engage creatively with their pupils to design quiet rooms and gardens, alongside undertaking activities such as the practice of mindfulness and training in conflict resolution, all within the context of a whole-school ethos of dynamic peacefulness.     

Group work in general practice

In this article, consideration is given to a problem often experienced in relation to courses offering psychodynamic understanding to front-line workers with troubled clients – the complexity for the student in taking the learning ‘home’ in a productive manner and the potential isolation of the student in, or alienation from, their workplace. A model of course delivery is described in which an active three-way partnership between student, course and workplace is fostered which enhances the students' learning, enables the workplace to benefit more fully from the course and enhances the effectiveness of the course in improving service to the ultimate client – the service user.     

Changing the Past,Present, and Future

Abstract

There has recently been a growing movement within psychology toward placing a greater emphasis on the positive aspects of human nature. This movement, known as positive psychology, focuses on the scientific study of human strengths and virtues as well as the variables that promote positive traits, emotions, and institutions. The purpose of this article is to discuss selected topics of research in positive psychology and the potential psychotherapeutic application of this research for children and youth, particularly in school settings. Interventions are presented for altering and enhancing children's and adolescents' perspectives regarding their past, their experience of the present, and their hopes for the future.