https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/6652 2026-06-26T01:01:57Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58644 Title: Book reviews [International Journal of Emotional Education, 7(1)] Abstract: Given that internationalisation is an increasing influence on education systems across the world, there is a real need for more fora to offer critical exchange, dissemination and debate on policy reports in education that are purporting to address international audiences and influence a wide range of national education systems. Against this backdrop, the International Journal of Emotional Education has decided to add Policy Reports to the scope of reviewed works for its book reviews section. This issue focuses on a review by Neil Boland of the OECD’s Skills for Social Progress: The Power of Social and Emotional Skills. While the OECD’s PISA findings do include a limited focus on students’ perceptions of belongingness and sense of inclusion in school, this OECD report represents an expansion of the ambit of its previous concerns. The assumptions underlying this attempted expansion are interrogated by Boland. If there are other Policy Reports in Education that readers would like to review or have reviewed, please contact me at: paul.downes@dcu.ie Professor Erna Nairz-Wirth offers a review of the multidisciplinary book Winning Without Fighting which combines theoretically informed understandings with practical approaches for education and working in the classroom. It addresses key issues such as the need to go beyond stigmatising labels for children and to focus on interactional dimensions to experience and behaviour. 2015-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/58643 Title: Editorial [International Journal of Emotional Education, 7(1)] Abstract: Welcome to the special edition of the International Journal of Emotional Education on the Promotion of Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young People. The purpose of this issue is to highlight research methodologies used to promote mental health in children and young people. This edition has been supported by the Edith Cowan University Children’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Collaborative Research Network (CRN) and the Flinders Centre for Student Wellbeing and the Prevention of Violence (SWAPv)1. This special edition draws together a number of major streams of research which focus on different methodologies used to research mental health in young people. Mental health is a national and international priority (see special edition of ‘The Psychology of Education Review’ edited by Humphrey and Qualter, 2013, and the reviews by Carta et al., 2015). For example, in the Australian context the Council of Australian Government’s National Action Plan for Mental Health 2006–2011 (COAG, 2010) and the recent Roadmap for National Mental Health Reform 2012–2022 (COAG, 2012) identified promotion, prevention and early intervention for positive mental health as essential actions for governments and organisations to undertake. National evaluations of KidsMatter Mental Health have been undertaken in Australia highlighting the delivery of effective school-based mental health interventions (Slee et al., 2009; Slee et al., 2013). 2015-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/6694 Title: Young Children’s cliques : a study on processes of peer acceptance and cliques aggregation Authors: Brighi, Antonella; Mazzanti, Chiara; Guarini, Annalisa; Sansavini, Alessandra Abstract: A considerable amount of research has examined the link between children’s peer acceptance, which refers to the degree of likability within the peer group, social functioning and emotional wellbeing, at a same age and in a long term perspective, pointing out to the contribution of peer acceptance for mental wellbeing. Our study proposes a sociometric methodology that, differently from many studies focused on individual classifications of social status, moves to the analysis of affiliative social networks within the class group. This study describes how individual factors such as socio-emotional competence, temperament, and linguistic skills are related to positive reciprocated nominations (=RNs) and examines the cliques generated by reciprocal nominations according to similarities (socio-emotional competence, temperament and linguistic skills) among cliques’ members. Eighty-four preschool children (M age = 62.5 months) were recruited. The Sociometric Interview to assess RNs and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test - Revised (PPVT-R; Dunn & Dunn, 1981) to assess receptive language were administered; the Social Competence and Behaviour Evaluation Short Form questionnaire (SCBE-30; LaFreniere & Dumas, 1996) and the Quit Temperament Scale (Axia, 2002) were filled in by the teachers. Results showed that children with higher RNs presented higher scores in social orientation, positive emotionality, motor activity, linguistic skills and social competence (trend), and exhibited lower anxietywithdrawal. The analysis of cliques revealed that children preferred playmates with similar features: social competence, anger-aggression (trend), social orientation, positive emotionality, inhibition to novelty, attention, motor activity (trend) and linguistic skills. These findings provide insights about processes of peer affiliation, highlighting the role of socio-emotional functioning and linguistic skills. 2015-04-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/6693 Title: Using the PhotoStory method to understand the cultural context of youth victimisation in the Punjab Authors: Skrzypiec, Grace; Slee, Phillip T.; Sandhu, Damanjit Abstract: Bullying is an international issue that is only just beginning to be researched in India and anecdotal evidence in Punjab, India, has suggested that most schools in the Punjab are in denial about bullying on campus. Our aim was to investigate the nature of bullying in this region using the PhotoStory Method. We sought to discover how young people in India perceived and experienced incidents of bullying. Three Punjabi schools were issued with ipads that students could use to email the researchers their illustrated stories about bullying. Using the Pic Collage App, 33 students aged 12-15 sent PhotoStories about experiences of victimization. Many stories described incidents of physical harassment, name calling and ‘Eve teasing’, which left students feeling sad, embarrassed, depressed and helpless. However, only four PhotoStories described incidents that met the definition of bullying i.e. that involved repetitive, hurtful behaviour perpetrated by a person or persons that could be considered more ‘powerful’ than the victim. Nonetheless, the stories, while not lengthy and overly descriptive, did indicate that physical acts of aggression between peers were common in and outside school. The findings are discussed in relation to definitional issues and the need to implement anti-violence programs in Indian schools. 2015-04-01T00:00:00Z