School Psychology International

The purpose of the present study was to compare Thai and Korean college students on their perceptions of the roles and functions of school psychologists. One hundred and ninety-three Thai college students and 238 Korean counterparts participated in this study. Students rated the importance of various roles/functions of a school psychologist and specified who should assume those roles/functions in the absence of a school psychologist. Results indicated that Thai education students rated the roles/functions of counselling students, intervention, consultation with teachers, and consultation with parents, significantly higher (p < 0.01) than their Korean counterparts. However, there was no significant difference between the two groups on the assessment role (p > 0.05). Thai students expected their relatives and school personnel and other related people outside of the schools to fill in the vacuum of a school psychologist significantly (p < 0.01) more than their Korean counterparts did in all roles and functions.

This study presents a collaborative research project by school psychologists and educators in Hong Kong. It investigated the coping strategies used by Chinese parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (N = 380) to enhance their children’s community integration and how these strategies were related to their perceptions of community integration and willingness to engage their children in community activities. A factor analysis of questionnaire responses revealed three clusters of coping strategies: Constructive, avoidant, and confrontational strategies. Parents’ willingness to engage their children in community activities was predicted positively by their use of constructive strategies but negatively by their use of avoidant strategies. Confrontational strategies had no predictive power. Parents who used constructive strategies often tended to report more positive emotions and perceive greater importance for engaging their children in community activities.

The Finnish educational system has become a subject of wide interest during the 2000s due to the country’s success in the OECD’s PISA surveys. One might expect that the challenges of school psychology would also have been solved successfully. However, in reality, Finnish school psychology is suffering from the same types of problems as in many other countries: No large-scale shift from reactive work to active promotion and prevention has taken place, and the number of school psychologists is insufficient. In the present article we delineate critical factors that have hindered the more adequate and effective use of psychological expertise in Finnish educational system. Necessary actions for future development are outlined.

In Portugal, as in other European countries, gypsy children remain largely at the margins of the educational system. Their underachievement and the associated dropout rates from school are serious educational issues and factors contributing to their marginalization in society. However, there is limited research qualitatively examining the different ways in which gypsy children think about learning. The current study examined data provided by 26 Portuguese gypsy elementary school children ranging from 9- to 13- years-old. Data analysis presented an outcome space representing the gypsy children’s qualitatively different conceptions of learning. Accordingly with their gypsy culture, these Portuguese students perceived their learning of basic numeracy and literacy skills as important for helping their families selling at fairs. These children indicated that they do not intend to continue studying beyond elementary school as they believe that learning of these basic skills is enough for living as a gypsy. The implications for educational processes and school practices are discussed.

This study investigated the effect of the Social Decision-Making Skills Curriculum (SDSC) on the emotional intelligence and the prosocial behaviors of primary students in Grades 1–3, in a private school in Lebanon. Students were trained in social problem-solving and social decision-making skills through the implementation of the SDSC. Participants were 80 students (29 students, experimental group; 51 controls). The SDSC was implemented in classrooms to students in the experimental group. A rating scale from this curriculum was used to determine the students’ profile in social decision-making and social-problem-solving skills. Subjects’ ‘emotional intelligence’ was assessed using the Bar-On Emotional Inventory: Youth Version. Following nine weeks of training in the SDSC, ANCOVA results showed that there were significant differences in the emotional intelligence and prosocial skills of children in the experimental group, as compared to those in the control group. Results are discussed and implications and future recommendations presented

The associations among preschool teachers’ attributions about child responsibility, intentionality, knowledge, and the seriousness of hypothetical displays of children’s aggressive behavior are examined in United States (N = 82) and Vietnamese (N = 91) preschool teachers. The results suggest cross-cultural differences as well as similarities in the relations among preschool teachers’ cognitions, affect, and disapproval of physical aggression. Teachers’ perceptions of the seriousness of and their negative affective responses to aggression, but not their beliefs about intent, predict teacher disapproval for both Vietnamese and US samples. Cross-cultural comparisons indicate in general US teachers express more negative attributions about, and Vietnamese teachers endorse more disapproval of, child aggression. Although the overall cognitive model is consistent across cultures, cross-cultural differences are found on teacher perception and responses to child aggression. It is important to consider such group differences in light of considerations to employ Western educational models or psychological interventions with individuals in non-Western countries.

Few classroom behavioral interventions have been thoroughly studied using culturally and linguistically diverse populations, international student populations, or those from diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Yet, having such tools for school psychologists and teachers is critical for behavior management in the classroom. One important exception is the Good Behavior Game, which has been extensively studied both in the United States and international settings. Because this intervention is based on well-tested principles of behavior theory, it has proven to be a useful tool across cultural, linguistic, socio-economic traditions, with long lasting positive longitudinal behavior change. This article presents a review of the literature on the Good Behavior Game as it applies to international and diverse student populations.

The associations between self-perception and attachment orientations and three aspects of children’s competence within friendships were examined: Managing conflict, seeking support, and giving support. Questionnaires were completed by 260 4th- and 5th-grade students. Homeroom teachers reported on the children’s social adjustment. Secure attachment orientation and positive self-perception were positively associated with prosocial friendship competencies, and negatively associated with disengaging strategies. By contrast, ambivalent attachment was related to accommodation strategy and to disengaging strategies in the context of seeking and giving support. Girls and boys showed different levels of competencies within friendships; the results also demonstrate that engaging and disengaging strategies might function differently for boys and girls, and reveal the moderating role of attachment. The role of culture in children’s competencies and the implications for intervention for children with friendship difficulties are discussed.

This study investigates the nature and the extent of adolescences’ experience of cyberbullying. A survey study of 264 students from three junior high schools was conducted. In this article, ‘cyberbullying’ refers to bullying via electronic communication tools. The results show that close to half of the students were bully victims and about one in four had been cyber-bullied. Over half of the students reported that they knew someone being cyberbullied. Almost half of the cyberbullies used electronic means to harass others more than three times. The majority of the cyber-bully victims and bystanders did not report the incidents to adults. When gender was considered, significant differences were identified in terms of bullying and cyberbullying. Males were more likely to be bullies and cyberbullies than their female counterparts. In addition, female cyberbully victims were more likely to inform adults than their male counterparts.