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.

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.

Growing research evidence on young people’s mental health and wellbeing during Covid-19 has highlighted the importance of examining the social relationships and circumstances that surround adolescent life. This study analysed secondary data obtained from the first wave of the COVID-19 Social Mobility and Opportunities (COSMO) Study, which examined the mental health and wellbeing of young people. Through a series of multiple linear and binary logistic regression analyses, psychological distress, elevated symptoms of depression and generalised anxiety, and self-esteem and life satisfaction were examined in relation to physical health, social support, interpersonal violence (i.e., face to face bullying, cyberbullying, discrimination), and demographic background in 16-year-olds during the pandemic. The findings showed that young people were more likely to report higher psychological distress and elevated symptoms of depression and anxiety if they were female, had poor physical health and limited family and community support, and experienced bullying, cyberbullying, and discrimination. The same measures were also found to predict low self-esteem and life satisfaction. The findings have significant implications regarding the nature of mental health and wellbeing in young people and the importance of accounting for interpersonal violence and social support when examining mental health in 16-year-olds, especially during health crises. A multisectoral approach involving health and education sectors, in collaboration with family and community support services, is advocated to reduce interpersonal violence and support young people’s mental health.