This study was conducted to assess the students’ perception of difficult topics in mathematics in some selected senior secondary schools (SS) in Kano state Nigeria. Two hundred (200) SS final year (III) students were randomly selected from ten (10) selected senior secondary schools within Bichi zone of Kano state Nigeria. A twenty items questionnaire was administered to respondents. Mean, standard deviation, and independent sample t-test statistics were used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that students perceived 13 topics (65%) difficult to comprehend. The study also showed that students’ gender had a significant influence on their perception of difficult topics in mathematics [t (198) =2.34, P =0.020, α = .05] and the nature of students’ schools had no significant influence on their perception of difficulty in mathematics [t (198) = -.444, p = 0.657, α = .05]. It was recommended that students should be encouraged and motivated to learn mathematics, curriculum developers should develop instructions that would improve students’ knowledge by laying more emphasis on the perceived difficulty areas in mathematics and further studies should be conducted to find out the factors responsible for the perceived difficulty and also if there is a relationship between perception and students’ achievement.

Our goal was to determine food cravings, nutritional status and physical activity of patients diagnosed with major depression. The study was conducted on 203 (144 women, 59 men) patients, aged 20-64 years, who were diagnosed with major depression at three psychiatry centers. Anthropometric measurements, demographic data, current health status, depression duration, drug use, eating habits, food craving status (Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait/FCQ-T), food consumption frequency, energy and nutrient intake and physical activity level (International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form/IPAQ) were evaluated. Depression duration, the frequency of antidepressant use and FCQ-T scores were higher in females than males. We found a positive correlation between FCQ-T score with the frequency of antidepressant use, depression duration and eating speed  (p < 0.05). Also, depression duration was negatively correlated with folate, vitamin B6, vitamin C and zinc (p < 0.05). Lastly, depression duration and FCQ-T were positively correlated with body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference, body fat (%) and fat tissue (kg) (p< 0.05). In addition, physical activity is a very important statement for FCQ-T scores. Both men and women, the risk of FCQ-T score who exercised for <600 Met-min/week were greater relative to that of those who exercised for ≥3000 Met-min/week. The results of this study showed that an inverse correlation between a number of nutrients intake and depression duration, antidepressant use or FCQ-T scores.  It also emphasizes the beneficial effects of habitual exercise participation on food cravings. Future research exploring the nutritional status of individuals with depression is warranted.

The goals of the study were to examine the predictive power of general cognitive ability, working memory, and self-efficacy in first grade for academic functioning of children at risk for learning disabilities in second grade. The study involved 82 children (age 6-7 years) from five local public elementary schools in middle-class neighborhoods in Jerusalem, including 41 children at risk for specific learning disabilities and 41 typically developing peers. In the first stage of the study, (performed at the end of first grade), general cognitive ability and working memory were assessed using subtests from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (the subtests consisted of:  Vocabulary and Block Design for general cognitive ability; Arithmetic and Digit Span for working memory). Academic self-efficacy was rated using a structural interview. At follow-up, academic functioning was assessed at the end of second grade. A serial-multiple mediation analysis revealed significant mediating roles for levels of performance in the Arithmetic subtest and for academic self-efficacy in predicting the academic functioning in second grade. The significance of the Arithmetic subtest, based on contemporary research on the structure of the intelligence was proposed. Educational implications call for sensitizing teachers to the unique role of academic self-efficacy in shaping trajectories of academic functioning development among children with RLD and in using effective strategies of promoting self-efficacy.

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.

Previous research suggests that learning basic neuroscience constructs, especially about the malleability of the brain, impacts middle school and older students’ academic mindset, response to failure and academic persistence.  This research targets teacher beliefs using a similar model.  Teachers were taught introductory neuroscience concepts related to how the brain learns.  Session topics included: basic neurodevelopment, neuroplasticity, sleep and the brain, stress and the brain, exercise and the brain, growth mindset, growth mindset feedback, self- control and grit.   Results of this school level intervention suggest significant impacts on teachers’ mindset, teaching efficacy, teachers’ approach to learning and grit.  In particular, teacher mindset beliefs significantly increased after the teachers were taught the concepts.  Implications for schools and teacher preparation are discussed.

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 objective of this study was to design an instrument to evaluate parental involvement in the education of their children, and, subsequently, to investigate the content validity of that instrument. The questions on the questionnaire have been written according to the dimensions that shape the construct of parental participation: parenting, learning supervision, communication, parental networks, and relationships with the community. Further, for the study of content validity, expert judgment has been used, and the Aiken V coefficient has been estimated. The results indicate a wide degree of agreement among the judges, showing evidence of content validity regarding the criteria of clarity, relevance, and sufficiency of the questions with Aiken V values that ranged between 0.73 and 1, with confidence intervals of 99 %. It was concluded that the instrument can be used successfully in the evaluation of parental involvement in education.

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.

Studies have documented widespread academic disengagement in middle and high school students. This disengagement has been tied to a myriad of negative outcomes, including failure to graduate from high school and transition into college and meaningful vocations. Supporting adolescents in cultivating a sense of beyond-the-self purpose is one factor that may combat student disengagement. MPower is a program designed to cultivate beyond-the-self purpose in an effort to promote student engagement and completion of high school (Klein et al., 2019). In a recent quantitative study, MPower participants compared to controls demonstrated a higher GPA, BTS purpose, self-efficacy, and decreased performance approach and performance avoidance goal orientations. In the current qualitative descriptive study, 11th and 12th grade (N=25) students in the Northeastern region of the United States, described their experiences in the MPower program. Three themes associated with the transformative aspects of MPower emerged from focus group data: 1) practice in strategic goal planning, 2) engagement in mentoring relationships, and 3) increased social support within a community. Because fostering youth purpose engenders many promotive and protective factors, these findings hold important implications for implementing similar programs more widely.

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.

This paper presents an investigation that aims to: 1) explore the relations between core symptoms of adult Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and several typical Internet activities, and 2) compare the predictive power of two core symptoms of ADHD- inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity- in predicting Internet addiction. Methods: A total of 2016 Chinese college students participated in this study. The ADHD symptoms were assessed using Conners self-rating scales and DSM-5 semi-structured interviews. Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (SCID-5) was used to exclude other psychiatric disorders. Chen’s Internet addiction scale (CIAS) was used to evaluate Internet addiction. Information about Internet activities (e.g., online gaming) was collected through a self-constructed questionnaire. Results: The ratio of Internet addiction problems among individuals with ADHD symptoms is significantly higher than in ordinary individuals (48.9% vs. 14.3%). Further, each core ADHD symptom has unique relations with different types of Internet activities. Specifically, both core ADHD symptoms are negatively associated with information downloading and online learning, and positively associated with online gaming, while online shopping is only associated with hyperactivity/impulsivity. Furthermore, both core ADHD symptoms are significant predictors of Internet addiction, especially inattention. Conclusion: College students with ADHD symptoms are at a higher risk of having Internet addiction than peers without ADHD symptoms. For individuals with ADHD symptoms and excessive online gaming and/or online shopping behaviors, the probability of having Internet addiction is even higher. These findings have important implications for identifying risk factors of Internet addiction and preventing Internet addiction in Higher Education settings.

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.

This research is motivated by the high level of imitation of adolescents on the negative behavior of adults, in addition to the high concern of educators on the failure of character education in schools. As many as 40% of adolescents have been bullied at school and 32% reported being victims of physical violence indicating high levels of juvenile violence, bullying, and lack of empathy. So schools need to strengthen their conscience and compassion to deal with this. The study aims to investigate the effect of character education management with a reflective pedagogical paradigm on conscience and compassion. This study was conducted with a quantitative experimental method with a quasi-experimental type. Data collection instruments both questionaries and documentation are used as instruments to collect the data. Hypothesis testing is done through multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) because the dependent variable is more than one. The results of this study prove that based the MANOVA test, the study revealed that there was a significant and positive influence between character education and the reflective pedagogical paradigm on the conscience of students 71.5%, and compassion of students 69.1%. It turns out that aspects of students' conscience and affection can be influenced by character education with a reflective pedagogical paradigm. This shows that schools need to manage their character education system with a reflective pedagogic paradigm so that students feel changes in attitudes and behavior due to the involvement of all school members in strengthening and sharpening character education.

Despite the desirability of working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), Black and Latinx people are underrepresented in these fields. Sustaining engagement in STEM is central to addressing the representation gap. This qualitative study examined whether and how a STEM-based after-school program (Changemakers) impacted students’ sense of engagement in STEM. Changemakers incorporates the basic tenets of STEM engagement and a purpose curriculum to increase students' sense of engagement. Purpose is an aspiration towards future-oriented goals, active engagement with one’s goals, and intention to contribute to the world. The sample was composed of students, ages 15-17 years old (N=10, 5=M; 5=F), from a public, low-income high school. Findings suggested that three elements helped engage participants with STEM material: challenging and novel curriculum, experiential learning, and supportive relationships. These findings underscore additional STEM programs can enhance their student’s learning and connection to the field by ensuring that their program encapsulates these identified components.

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.  

The aim of the present study is to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) as part of the study of affective variables using a sample of English as a foreign language (EFL) university students in Morocco. Two hundred and six (N = 206) participants of undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels completed the self-esteem (SE) questionnaire. Using classical methods of factor extraction before employing more robust techniques comprising minimum average partial (MAP) and parallel analysis (PA) to perform preliminary factor analysis (FA) using principal axis factoring (PAF), results conclusively and parsimoniously yielded a one-factor solution with acceptable construct reliability (Composite Reliability). CFA results, including goodness-of-fit indexes, confirmed that the one-factor model was better fitting compared to its competing independent two-factor counterpart, but marginally less so compared to the correlated version of the latter. Two out of the three constructed models showed good fit indexes, thus demonstrating the conformity of two measurement models with their respective hypothesized structural models. Furthermore, using the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio, both two-factor models showed acceptable discriminant validity. The obtained results further corroborate both the one-factor and two-factor solutions reported in previous works for which we present new evidence from a Moroccan EFL context.

Television watching and video/computer playing are favorite leisure activities among children and adolescents. Individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have several special characteristics in relation to attention and impulsivity compared with non-ADHD individuals. This study investigates parental perceptions of electronic media use among children and adolescents with ADHD and a control group. A total of 54 participants with ADHD and 51 controls aged 7-15 years old took part in the study. A questionnaire was constructed to collect quantitative data from parents. ADHD children tend to spend more time per day on electronic devices compared to non-referred children. Age but not gender seemed to affect the frequency of children’s media play. Inattention, anxiousness and disorganization are more common in the ADHD group in activities such as reading, doing homework, doing sports or playing with toys in comparison to media activities. Parents of both groups worry a lot about their child’s habits of videogame playing. Finally, parents of ADHD children recognize some of the benefits of videogames in the areas of memory, attention and motivation but not in the academic area. In conclusion, the present study highlights important aspects of the topic of media use by children with ADHD as well as risk factors to take into account.  

Online trolling is online behavior in which the troll provokes, harms, and pretends to be someone else to achieve their goals. The purpose of trolls may be to harm the other person, but they can also be for entertainment purposes. Online trolling, for whatever purpose, can have significant psychological effects on individuals and people who are socially exposed. In addition, online trolling is becoming more common every day. However, there are very few studies on trolling. Therefore, the study aims to examine the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between dark triad personality traits and levels of online trolling. For this purpose, structural equation modeling and bootstrapping method was used. The participants comprised 516 (%71.6 females; %28.4 males) undergraduates. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 31 (X̄ = 21.09). The measures used included the Online Trolling Scale, Dirty Dozen Scale, and Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. In the study, it was found that there were significant relationships between the dark triad, online trolling, and empathy. Also, the results of the structural equation model showed that the effect of the dark triad on online trolling was mediated by empathy. This result was found to be significant with bootstrapping.