School belonging has received substantial scholarly attention as children and adolescents spend most of their day at school building relationships with peers and adults. Research shows that students who feel a stronger sense of school belonging tend to exhibit positive academic, social-emotional, and behavioral outcomes. In the past, belonging and…

This short-term longitudinal study aims to expand our understanding of the role of peer victimization, student-level perceived school climate, covitality, and mental health difficulties among 897 Chinese elementary school students (3rd to 6th graders, M[subscript age] = 9.91 years, SD = 1.16 years, 57.44% boys). Results of the latent-moderated…

The names of the participants and the school district used in this program evaluation are pseudonyms to protect the participant's identity. This program evaluation was from the perceptions of the parent/guardian and faculty of the Garnett County School District (GCSD) K-8 Alternative Learning Program. The study focused on the middle school…

Due to COVID-19, 2020 was a strange and different school year for many students around the world. Based on a survey of primary school students (N = 2665) conducted in December 2020, this article examines students' well-being and stress levels one year after the first COVID-19 outbreak. It also examines how students emotionally relate to the…

Psychological well-being (PWB) encompasses the positive aspects of mental health, such as hedonic wellbeing (experience of enjoyment and pleasure), eudaimonic wellbeing (experience of self-actualization), and life satisfaction (global evaluation of quality of life). Japanese teachers suffer from poor PWB with a high incidence of mental health…

Although green schoolyards provide many benefits to children and communities, little research explores students' perceptions of these benefits and how natural elements (e.g. gardens, trees) and associated use shape student experience. We examine the relationship between nature-based attributes, nature-based activities, and teacher-led activities…

In the US, the presence of a lifetime diagnosis of either depression or anxiety rose from 5.4% in 2003 to 8.4% in 2012 in children aged 6-17 years (Bitsko et al., 2018) and by 2016, 16.5% had at least one mental health disorder including depression or anxiety (Whitney & Peterson, 2019). Children and adolescents exposed to adverse childhood…

School climate is a vital aspect of school life that influences students' emotional well- being, social relations and academic achievement. Therefore, educators need to monitor school climate to nurture good interpersonal relations and students' positive experiences in school. To achieve this objective, educators and psychosocial support services…

Using a quasi-experimental design with no control groups, this pilot study aimed to test the effectiveness of a universal mental health promotion program for elementary school students in an underserved United States-Mexico border community. A total of eighty-five fifth and sixth grade students participated in this program and completed the…

Background: Optimistic thinking is a facet of social-emotional learning linked to better mental health and problem-solving in children; however, few educational tools exist to improve this important aspect of self-awareness. Objective: To examine the effectiveness of an optimistic thinking tool with diverse students in an elementary school…

Separate lines of research have linked negative parenting practices, victimization, and negative affectivity--separately--with internalizing symptoms in children. However, no previous studies have connected these lines of research to examine internalizing pathology in children. The current study tested complex moderated-mediation models to…

Introduction: Schools have become a primary setting for providing mental health care to youths in the U.S. School-based interventions have proliferated, but their effects on mental health and academic outcomes remain understudied. In this study we will implement and evaluate the effects of a flexible multidiagnostic treatment called Modular…

This research was designed to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a social and emotional learning (SEL) mindfulness-based school program (MindUp) for children in post-conflict Northern Uganda. In study one, we culturally adapted and implemented MindUp with 5th and 6th graders. Over a two-year period, significant decreases in children's…

The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting stay-at-home orders created a need for assessing elementary, middle, and high school students' experienced stressors associated with the coronavirus situation. In collaboration with a school district wanting information about their students' well-being during the pandemic school shut-down, the current study…

Adolescents in the United States live amid high levels of concentrated poverty and increasing income inequality. Poverty is robustly linked to adolescents' mental health problems; however, less is known about how perceptions of their social status and exposure to local area income inequality relate to mental health. Participants consisted of a…