The article deals with the gender differences in experiencing subjective social well-being. Subjective social well-being (SSWB) is defined as an integral social and psychological phenomenon, which reflects awareness and evaluation of social functioning based on the correlation between the level of demand and degree of satisfaction of individual’s social needs, as a result of which he/she defines his/her social being as optimal and experiences the feeling of satisfaction. It has been demonstrated that while divorce decreases the SSWB of men, it equally increases and decreases the SSWB of women. The leading agents of social relation for women are friends, parents and a partner, for men-parents, neighbours and acquaintances. The presence of children decreases the SSWB of women. At the same time, for men the effect depends on the perception of parenthood. For women dominant psychological factors of experiencing SSWB are competence, autonomy, intuitiveness, desire for power, activeness, whereas for men they are courage, expression of aggression, universalism, kindness and conformism.

Psychological climate is a type of climate that is measured at individual level and pertains to employees’ cognitive appraisal of work environment. Though various attempts have been made to define and conceptualize it, and several models have been proposed to measure this construct, the ambiguity surrounding its conceptualization and measurement still persists. This study aims to synthesize and analyze research on psychological climate, elucidate ambiguities, and contribute to conceptualization and demarcation of the construct.

Previous studies have confirmed that perceived social support facilitates university adjustment during emerging adulthood. Less is known, however, about the specific dimensions of social support that foster successful transition to university. This research represents the first attempt to examine the combined effects of social provisions, sense of support and perceived acceptance on each facet of adaptation to higher education. The sample consisted of 198 women and 102 men, of average age 18.03 years (SD = 0.52), enrolled in the first year of different degree courses at a public university. Three measures were used to assess various dimensions of perceived social support: the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6), the Perceived Acceptance Scale (PAS) and Social Provisions Scale (SPS). The measures of the various facets of university adjustment were obtained from the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ). Regression analysis indicated that reassurance of worth and perceived acceptance by friends were the dimensions that best predicted all facets of university adjustment. The findings provide a more comprehensive understanding of how perception of social support could be used to develop effective intervention strategies and programmes to prevent failure at university.

This study examined teachers’ attributions and emotions for their subjectively perceived interpersonal relationships with their students as positive or negative, and whether hope (pathways thinking, agency thinking) influences the perceived positive or negative interpersonal relationships, the subsequent attributions and emotions, and the impact of attributions on emotions. Fifty teachers, of both genders, completed the questionnaire for each of their five students who were randomly selected from their teaching classes. The results revealed that the positive interpersonal relationships were predominately attributed to stable, personally controllable and self-student controllable factors, whereas the negative interpersonal relationships were primarily attributed to external, external controllable, unstable, and self-student controllable factors. Also, teachers reported positive emotions of high intensity (sympathy, cheerfulness, exciting, love, not anger, calmness) for the positive relationships, and negative emotions of moderate intensity (no enthusiasm, shame, anxiety, no excitement) for the negative relationships. Yet, the high hope teachers made adaptive attributional and emotional appraisals for the positive and, mainly, negative interpersonal relationships. Agency thinking, as compared to pathway thinking, was a better and worse formulator of the appraisals in negative and positive interpersonal relationships, respectively. Hope, additionally, had direct effect on the emotions, beyond that afforded by attributions, particularly in negative interpersonal relationships.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the first human rights treaty with the ultimate goal of providing conditions conducive to child health and development. The CRC is grounded on four guiding principles: (1) non-discrimination; (2) best interests of the child; (3) the right to life, survival, and development; and (4) respect for the views of the child. These CRC principles are consistent with a social justice approach within the field of school psychology. This article highlights implications for school psychologists and encourages school psychologists to be at the center of the process of measuring, advocating, and actualizing all rights under the CRC, including the right to participation, in schools throughout the world. A summary of the Rights Respecting Schools initiative is offered to provide a concrete example for school psychologists and other school-based professionals.

The role of motivation, temperament, personality and well-being as predicting propensity factors for mathematical abilities was investigated in 30 adults. By embedding these predictors in the Opportunity-Propensity framework, this study aimed to reveal their unique contribution in math development, which is important to improve mathematics education. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to combine predictors and find evidence for the importance of some non-cognitive and socio-emotional propensity factors for mathematical performance by using primary data. Results indicated significant interrelations between the propensities, pleading to integrate them in math research. Furthermore, the relationship propensities and mathematics was dependent on the specific investigated math task, which is in line with the componential nature of mathematics. Negative Affect was the best prediction of accuracy (lower levels of subjective well-being associated with lower levels of mathematical accuracy) whereas Intrinsic Motivation was the best predictor for fact retrieval speed. Limitations and implications for future research are described.

During the second decade of the 21st century families and schools world-wide have been affected by several critical events, with economic recession, the refugee crisis, and lately the COVID-19 pandemic being the most prominent. Pertaining to the school community (students, educators, administration, parents, school personnel etc.), evidence-based interventions for improving mental health and supporting psychosocial adjustment are necessary. In this paper the development, implementation, and evaluation of the international WeCARE (We Connect, Accept, Respect, Empower) program, an online multilevel intervention for promoting well-being and resilience in the school community during unsettling times, is presented. The Program has a multicultural perspective and provides the opportunity to students from different countries to cooperate and develop multicultural skills. The intervention is based on a conceptual model for enhancing positive development, resilience, social and emotional skills, and competence. The interventions were implemented on individual and system levels over four consecutive years, including web-based teachers’ training and supervision, seminars for parents, and classroom implementation. Furthermore, collaboration amongst schools and educational settings was highlighted, in the form of networking at national and international level. Based on the evaluation results, the necessity for further development and implementation of programs for the promotion of resilience and well-being during unsettling times is discussed.

The emotional lives of teaching at the universities have remained under research.   This study used a qualitative approach to investigate the emotional lives of lecturers teaching at two selected universities. This study sought to identify, understand and interpret the emotional lives of teaching with interpretive phenomenology research design. In purposefully selected two universities, 12 lecturers participated in the study. Semi-structured individual interviews were employed, the data generated were interpreted, the emerged themes were: work condition, resources and accreditation panel, trade union and government disagreement, and experienced emotions and effects on participants. A further interpretation of the emerged themes revealed that the emotional lives of the participants are dependent on teaching resources, academic war and convenient behaviour. The dependence is thereby suggestive that change in the management of teaching resources, academic war and behaviour of lecturers could positively influence the nature of their emotional lives. The paper used two universities, which lays the foundation for subsequent studies because this is the first study to examine the emotional lives of teaching in Nigerian universities. The study made recommendations for further studies and drew implications for policy and practice.

Endeavors supporting college students’ positive psychosocial development are gaining attention and investment in various countries and social contexts. Higher education experiences provide new academic, social, and vocational advancement opportunities at a critical developmental stage. However, higher education can also cause distress due to the challenges and stressors present during this new stage of increased independence. The Social Emotional Health Survey-Higher Education (SEHS-HE) assesses the core psychosocial strengths of individuals transitioning from secondary schools into institutions of higher education (IHE) to aid campus student support services. The present study sought to extend the SEHS-HE research by examining its application with college student samples from Mexico (n = 4,207), United States (n = 1,638), and Spain (n = 1,734). Confirmatory factor analyses investigated the hypothesized SEHS-HE higher-order factor model. The Mexico sample returned an acceptable model fit, but the USA and Spain samples had a suboptimal fit; hence, we explored alternative models. A two-level structure had full invariance for all three samples. This study extends the current scholarship on the conceptual model and psychometric properties of SEHS-HE. The discussion focuses on implications for future research to enhance SEHS-HE in national and cross-national research and practice.

Findings from a research synthesis of the relationships between family needs and parent, family, and child functioning are reported. The synthesis included 31 studies conducted in 12 different countries. The studies were conducted between 1987 and 2021 and included 4,543 participants. Eight different family needs scales or adaptations of the scales were completed by the study participants (mothers, fathers, or grandmothers of children with developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, or medical conditions). The outcome measures included caregiver psychological health, parenting stress, parenting burden, parenting beliefs, family coping strategies, family functioning, family support, and child functioning. The correlations between family needs and the outcome measures were used as the sizes of effects for evaluating the strength of the relationships between measures. Results showed that unmet family needs were associated with more negative and less positive family and family member functioning and fewer unmet family needs were associated with more positive and less negative family and family member functioning. The sizes of effect for parenting stress and burden were larger than were the sizes of effects for each of the other outcome measures. Child condition and study quality moderated the relationship between family needs and parenting stress and burden but not the other outcome measures. The results are discussed in terms of one component of family systems intervention models.

In this study, a cluster analysis was performed by creating a data set from students' personality traits and academic procrastination behaviours. Correlation analysis was done to examine the relationship between the variables, and the characteristics of the formed clusters and the association of the clusters with the perceived socioeconomic status were examined. Cluster analysis is a simple and practical method for classifying a set of complex data based on certain variables and making them more meaningful and using the results as an aid to decision-making. Clustering algorithms handle such data effectively, making it more meaningful. Following the analysis, it was revealed that two clusters had formed. The first of the clusters includes 65.2 % of the sample population; the level of procrastination and the mean score of neurotic personality traits were calculated higher than the other cluster. The remaining part of the sample population (34.8 %) constitutes the second cluster. The mean scores of studying systematically habits and extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience personality traits of the students forming this cluster are higher than the other cluster. No association was observed between the clusters and the perceived socioeconomic levels of the students. The distributions of socioeconomic levels within the clusters are similar to each other. When the correlations of these variables are examined; positive relationships were found between the level of procrastination and neurotic personality traits. Procrastination behaviour and neurotic personality traits were also negatively correlated with other variables.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected people in multiple dimensions. In addition to the social, physical health, financial, and mental health impacts of the pandemic, many United States (U.S.) college students experienced an abrupt transition to online learning in Spring 2020, resulting in a significant disruption to their learning and life. In this study, we examined COVID-19 impacts as reported by college students enrolled in an online class in Spring 2020 via an extra-credit survey. Participants reported predominantly negative impacts, but positive impacts were also reported. A total of 61 aspects of impact were identified reflecting six major themes: academic, housing and travel related, physical health-related, financial and work-related, social life, and mental health related impacts. We found that females reported significantly more overall negative impacts and significantly more academic and housing/travel related impacts than males. Black students reported significantly fewer positive impacts compared to non-Black students in the sample. Asian students reported significantly more academic impacts than White students. In addition, participants in the fully online degree program had significantly fewer overall impacts and significantly fewer academic impacts than those in the residential degree program. Implications of the findings were discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic required teachers to quickly adapt to changes in teaching likely impacting teachers’ emotional exhaustion and feelings of teaching efficacy. Further, teachers’ experience in the classroom may have shaped how they responded to the crisis and changes. Although teachers faced these unprecedented shifts, it is possible that both internal (i.e., hope) and external (i.e., social support) sources of support may act as promotive factors for teacher outcomes. The present study describes how teachers’ emotional exhaustion, teaching self-efficacy, and supports (hope and colleague) were associated with one another one year into the pandemic. Associations were compared across early-/mid-career and veteran teachers. Results showed higher emotional exhaustion and lower hope for early-/mid-career teachers compared to veteran teachers, and a negative relation between emotional exhaustion and hope for early-/mid-career teachers. Pre-pandemic emotional exhaustion predicted hope during the pandemic for all teachers. Implications include supporting teacher well-being and career longevity considering acute stress.

At the beginning of primary school, young children need to adapt academically, socially, and emotionally to their new school environment. Enjoying going to school and becoming socially integrated are important preconditions for successful learning. However, children from disadvantaged families have fewer resources and receive less support, and such deficits can result in lower attainment, negative emotions, and lower well-being. In recent years, interest in emotions and well-being in school has grown in educational research. However, studies analyzing the affective characteristics of disadvantaged students, especially in primary school, are still scarce. In this study, we analyzed reciprocal relationships between school enjoyment, social integration, and achievement using cross-lagged structural equation modeling (Grades 1 and 2), while controlling for family background and sex. We used data from the National Educational Panel Study in Germany (NEPS; N = 4,986). Results showed positive effects of school enjoyment on achievement and social integration on school enjoyment. Additionally, a better home learning environment had positive effects on school enjoyment and social integration in Grade 1. Effects of socioeconomic and migration background on school enjoyment and social integration were not significant. Our results show no evidence that educationally disadvantaged students are additionally disadvantaged in their school enjoyment or social integration at the beginning of primary school.  

Challenges relating to misuse and abuse of the internet and other mobile devices have become sources of concern among the youth population the world-over. However, research on cyber related issues has been focused mainly on adolescents in Nigeria. This study investigates the influence of cyber bullying, cyber victimization and pathological internet use on psychological well-being among adults. Using a cross sectional research design and a multi-stage sampling technique, 280 university students were selected. A questionnaire on socio-demographic profile cyber intimidation and internet addiction was administered to the participants. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-test analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Three hypotheses were tested. The results revealed that participants who engage less in cyber bullying were not significantly different in their levels of psychological well-being when compared to their counterparts who engage more in cyber-bullying. Pathological Internet use did not significantly influence the levels of psychological well-being of cyber space addicts. The association between cyber related variables and psychological well-being is crucial for better understanding of their actual effects on human behaviour and for the purpose of designing intervention programmes.

Various investigations have applied meditation protocols in the school context, with beneficial effects. Transcendental meditation, however, received little attention in primary school settings and few controlled studies are available. The present study is aimed: 1) to investigate the implementation of a school protocol (Quiet Time-QT) based on Transcendental Meditation ™ in a primary school setting 2) to test its efficacy in promoting strengths and resilience in children, using a controlled research, with a cross over design. 92 students attending fourth and fifth class of a primary school were assigned to either the QT intervention, or to a waiting list condition. Children assigned to the waiting list received the QT protocol after few months. Before and after the intervention children were evaluated by their teachers using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA). A Repeated Measures MANOVA was applied to compare the two groups. After the QT intervention children in the experimental condition showed fewer emotional and behavioral difficulties (SDQ) compared to children in the waiting list. An overall positive effect of QT was observed in the total sample in improving children’s strengths and emotional well-being. Participants enjoyed the practice of meditation in the school setting. Conclusions: the results of this controlled investigation showed that the QT school protocol is feasible in the school setting, and it yielded improvements in children’s strengths and well-being. Meditation programs could be easily included in the educational system to sustain children positive development.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the work situations that education professionals perceived as stressful during the first wave of COVID-19 infections, and their possible variation according to demographic characteristics and working conditions. Empirical, quantitative, ex-post-facto, cross-sectional study was carried out, in which participated 9,058 teachers (86.9% women; M age = 41.08; SD = 8.82) who completed a semi-structured questionnaire of demographic and labor information and a scale of teacher stressors in the context of a pandemic. It was used Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with post hoc Bonferroni contrasts to study the variations in the perception of stress according to demographic and work variables. The MANOVAs indicated significant variations in the perception of stress according to the teachers' gender, age, marital status, having dependents (children and parents), the level of education of the teacher, the employment situation (permanent vs. transitory), teaching seniority, the type of educational management, the number of students in charge and the number of weekly working hours (for all cases, Hotelling's F with p <.001).  

The responsibilities of emerging adulthood and academic pressure are some stressful situations encountered among graduating students. Those graduating students used different coping that deals with stressful situations that may affect their quality of life. This study, a predictive correlational design, was conducted on 202 Filipino graduating university/college students to determine if stress and avoidant coping can predict their quality of life. Results showed a significant relationship existed between stress, avoidant coping, and quality of life. Stepwise forward regression analysis tested two regression models, where model 1 revealed that stress negatively predicted the quality of life. Whereas model 2 suggested that stress and avoidant coping (i.e., behavioral disengagement) was significantly higher in predicting the quality of life among graduating students.

This study explored the impact of the peer support programme on pupils at Japanese technical high school for over 6 years. A total of 268 pupils (an intervention group 112; a control group 114) were invited for the study and the pupils of the intervention group were given peer support training and they joined its supporting activities. All the pupils were assessed three times by adopting IRS, RSES10 and GHQ28. The results showed that the programme seemed to give positive influences on the peer supporters in terms of IRS, RSES10 and GHQ28. Also, both group members were classified into low-scoring groups and high-scoring groups, depending on their scores at the first assessment. Then, the results of analysis showed that the pupils from both low & high -scoring groups significantly improved their scores in IRS. In RSES10 and GHQ28, the pupils from the low-scoring groups improved their scores, but those from the high-scoring groups did not improve much. As a conclusion, even in a technical high school where the majority of pupils was male pupils (over 90%), the peer support programme seemed to give positive influences on the peer supporters in terms of IRS, RSES10 and GHQ28.  

Dyslexia is traditionally regarded as a disability which has an impact on the learning process of reading, spelling and writing. This study attempts to explore the character strengths, flourishing, resilience, and perceptions of professional success and satisfaction of 477 Greek adults. The sample consisted of 30 adults with an official diagnosis of dyslexia, 103 adults who scored above the threshold limit in the Dyslexia Checklist, and 344 adults who did not report any leaning difficulty. The following instruments were employed in the study: the Brief Resilience Scale, the Flourishing Scale, and subscales of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths 120 (creativity, perseverance, social intelligence and teamwork). The results show that the dyslexic group scored higher in creativity and teamwork in comparison to the control group. No statistical differences were observed in professional success and satisfaction between the groups. Level of education seems to correlate with creativity. The prediction models showed a negative correlation of social intelligence with suspected dyslexia and a very low prediction of flourishing and resilience on the basis of dyslexia status. Positive traits of dyslexia are worth further study. Identifying strengths among people with dyslexia might be helpful for implementing new educational interventions and strategies.