As I write, the world is going into lockdown to contain the corona virus. We send all our best wishes for you and your family’s safety in these unprecedented times. If you are in isolation, then perhaps this edition will bring you some stimulating material to read. Appropriately, the first article, by Simone Gindidis, Sandra Steward and John Roodenburg, is on psychologists updating their therapeutic approach by using apps with young people. The psychologists indicated that the young people had a higher engagement with therapy by using these apps between sessions, and found there was a reduction in stigma. I will also remind you that if or when your school closes down, you can use online counselling, as explained in Kevin Glasheen’s article in the first issue of the journal in 2013 (https://doi.org/10.1017/jgc.2013.15) and in his other excellent articles, which can be found at http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Campbell,_Marilyn.html. The second article in this issue, by Paige Pikulski, Jeffrey Pella, Elizabeth Casline, Any Hale, Kelly Drake and Golda Ginsburg, also addresses a topical issue of child anxiety and school connectedness. School connectedness is a student’s feeling of belonging, feeling safe at school, and that the school is fair. We know low school connectedness results in negative psychological consequences. This article shows that low school connectedness is also associated with greater overall anxiety, as well as specific worries.
The next two articles concern culturally and linguistically diverse children (CALD students). The first, by Azucena Velasco Leon and Marilyn Campbell, examines what are fair assessment practices for these students if they experience difficulties in their learning. A survey of school psychologists and counsellors’ practices was undertaken in assessing such students and compared best practice guidelines from the literature. The next study looked at the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire — Teacher version when used to report on CALD students. The authors, Nigar Khawaja and Lakshmi Dhushyanthakumar, found a four-factor structure with sound internal consistency. CALD adolescents from refugee backgrounds were found to score higher on total difficulties than other CALD students.
Two articles on bullying follow. The first, by Peter Smith, Fran Thompson, John Jessel, Andrea Kozuchova, Irene Ferreria, Gabriela Idriceanu, Ersilia Menesini, Margaret Miklosz and Marian de Villanueva, reports on the evaluation of the training of peer cybermentors to provide help and advice to others online. The training was conducted in six European countries and was found to have had a positive impact, albeit with some challenges. The following article, by Esra Tekel and Engin Karadag, presents research showing that school bullying was associated with less mindfulness and academic performance. In the next article, Grace Leung, Anna Zhang, Eddie Yu and Johnson Cheung examined how an innovative forum theatre assisted Chinese parents to manage their interactions with their adolescent children.
The last article in this issue is by Abdullay Atli, who interviewed school counsellors in their first year of practice. It was found that although they were excited to have found work in their field, they experienced conflict with teachers, had difficulty in organising their rooms, and found there was a dissonance between what they had learnt at university and what they had to do in their job.
Unfortunately, again in this issue we have no professional practice papers. We would love you to write something about your own practice to help others in the field. Keep safe.
