Well, I am delighted. Someone actually emailed me to say they had read the last editorial!!! AND we have two practitioner papers for the issue with another two in the system. Great news on both counts.

School counsellors play an important role in supporting student mental health but face several challenges that may increase their vulnerability to burnout. This study aimed to explore the factors associated with burnout among school counsellors in secondary schools in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. A cross-sectional, online survey was conducted to measure demographics, school counsellor background, school context, school counselling practice, openness towards evidence-based practices, and use of online resources. The final sample consisted of the 125 participants who responded they had (n = 65) or had not (n = 60) experienced burnout. Most participants were female (86%), with an average of 9 years’ experience (SD = 7.0). Burnout was associated with lower workload manageability, lower satisfaction with school mental healthcare, greater impact of work stress upon wellbeing, and greater frequency of providing care outside of school hours. No other significant associations were found. This study reinforces that school counsellors are vulnerable to burnout and that measuring job overload may help to identify those at increased risk. School counsellors may also benefit from additional support for students who require care beyond school hours. Greater awareness about the risks of burnout, coupled with efforts to improve resource allocation within the school setting, may improve school counsellors’ sustainability and optimise the mental healthcare available to students.

Two alternative versions of a model of the cognitive decision-making processes of gifted and talented adolescents associated with occupational or career indecision were tested in this study. A psychometrically rigorous survey instrument was used to collect data from 664 adolescents attending three academically selective high schools in Sydney, Australia. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling procedures. The superior model suggested that idiocentric orientations toward the future and social influences from the family are likely to direct gifted and talented adolescents away from a state of occupational amotivation, which is a likely predictor of occupational indecision. The findings may be used to more clearly understand and to better assist gifted and talented adolescents experiencing difficulty with their occupational decisions.

This report is part of a larger project investigating school satisfaction of early adolescents in Hong Kong. The research questions in this part of the study focused on the school experience of 21 high-ability Chinese students aged 9–14 in Hong Kong primary and secondary schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the participants. From the qualitative data collected, six influences on their school satisfaction emerged ― two that could be classified as ‘personal influences’ (goal-directed thoughts and motivation; self-discipline and self-regulation) and four themes that reflected ‘environmental influences’ (positive teacher-student relationships, classmates emotional and instrumental support, parental involvement in students’ learning, talent development opportunities). The findings from the study can help to inform school personnel on modifiable aspects of school environments that can help high-ability students succeed and at the same time enjoy their school life.

Despite the advantages of international study — to the student, the university, and the local community — studies have reported an increased risk of stress-related psychological problems in international students. We surveyed 384 Asian international students (189 female, 193 male, 2 undeclared; aged 17 to 47 years) attending Australian universities in order to examine whether depressive symptoms in these students are related to their trait maladaptive perfectionism and the extent to which they have experienced acculturative stress while in Australia. Path analyses suggest that maladaptive perfectionism influences depression indirectly by increasing acculturative stress (mediation model) and to a lesser extent by interacting positively with acculturative stress (moderation model). The results reveal ways in which maladaptive perfectionism can affect the wellbeing of Asian international students experiencing adjustment-related stress.

The aim of the study was to predict loneliness with regard to parental acceptance-rejection and sibling relationship quality after controlling for gender, age, grade, school type, field of study, birth order, and number of siblings. The UCLA Loneliness Scale, Maternal and Paternal Acceptance-Rejection Questionnaire, and Sibling Relationship Questionnaire were administered to 1,451 high school students, and multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted. Results showed that 1.7% of variance was explained by model 1, including demographic variables, but model 1 was not significant. After adding mother and father acceptance to model 2, the explained variance increased to 18.1%. In model 3, sibling variables were added and the explained variance was 19.6%, which were both significant results. Mother acceptance was the best predictor of loneliness, followed by father acceptance. Parental variables explained loneliness better than sibling and demographic variables. Understanding the family predictors of loneliness may be seen as the first step for a subsequent intervention.

School students are increasingly using apps for health-related purposes, either on their own or when recommended by psychologists or counsellors, as apps offer a way to assist students to change their behaviour. However, there is a growing need for psychologists and counsellors to be able to evaluate the quality and usefulness of such apps to effect behaviour change. This study was therefore undertaken to identify methods by which school psychologists and counsellors could evaluate health-related apps for clinical use or research purposes. After examining 15 studies of apps that met the inclusion criteria, it was clear that researchers used a number of taxonomies to evaluate the apps. There were seven taxonomies identified, of which five were generalisable to all health conditions, with the behaviour change technique (BCT) taxonomy being the most comprehensive, containing 13 key behaviour strategies. Despite the utility of the taxonomies to identify the amount of behaviour change content within the apps, it was difficult to determine how the behaviour change strategies were measured, thus reducing the ability to predict app effectiveness. Approaches to improving methods by which apps can be developed and evaluated are proposed.

I am pleased to introduce two practitioner papers for this issue of the Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools.

1. 1. School camp refusal and reluctance: The role of the school psychologist. Mary Woods and John Burns.

2. 2. Understanding trauma in the refugee context. Kimberley De Deckker.

Attendance at overnight school camp is an integral component of the Australian educational landscape. However, some students are reluctant to attend camp, while others refuse to attend at all. School psychologists play an important part in supporting these students and their families, and teachers. While much is published about general school refusal, there is surprisingly little attention given to the specific management of school camp refusal and reluctance. This article summarises the contribution of the related theoretical areas of childhood anxiety, school refusal, and homesickness. It then outlines, through a case study example, a management approach for school psychologists, from presentation of the problem to assessment, through to informed intervention, including a suite of strategies to support the student, parents and teachers, who have duty of care during camps.

For a school counsellor or classroom teacher, working with newly arrived students from refugee backgrounds can be daunting, particularly with the awareness that these students have likely experienced significant and potentially horrific trauma. There is now a wealth of evidence showing that traumatic experiences can significantly impact our neurological development, resulting in difficulties in areas such as learning, behaviour, relationship building and emotion regulation, meaning newly arrived refugee students will often arrive at school with some significant challenges. While there is an extensive amount of literature on trauma, there is very little that focuses specifically on the refugee population, and even less on young people from refugee backgrounds. Predominantly, the research looks at chronic or developmental trauma such as child abuse and neglect, or acute trauma such as natural disasters. The following article looks at the refugee context specifically, breaking down the difference between acute, chronic and developmental trauma; and describing the neurological effects of trauma and suggesting some practical classroom-based strategies that can be employed to support and facilitate the recovery of students from refugee backgrounds.