People who regard nature as important and personally meaningful are often compelled to conserve it. This compulsion is increasingly vital in a world where global climate and biodiversity crises are worsening, with younger generations set to bear most of the resulting ecological burden. By understanding why children and adolescents value nature, we…

Internationally, there is a gap in high-school completion rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. In Australia, gap estimates are commonly based on lag indicators, precluding examination of underlying mechanisms. Using two longitudinal representative samples of Australian youth, we explored differences in high-school completion between…

A substantial body of research suggests that incipient moral anxiety is growing in relation to excluded youth, and is manifestly cross-national in nature. While these anxieties are often assumed to be most evident in recent times, historians of childhood and youth persistently remind us of the long history of anxiety recorded in the public record…

This study examined associations between loneliness, a construct associated with serious adverse mental health outcomes, and positive mental wellbeing. Validated measures of loneliness (represented by friendship-related loneliness, isolation, positive attitude to solitude, and negative attitude to solitude) and positive mental wellbeing were…

We know that rural young people have less access to higher education than do metropolitan youth, and that the effect of location is a much stronger influence than SES or achievement (Rothman, Hillman, McKenzie, & Marks, 2009). We also know that, based on achievement data, many rural young people, who might be expected to enrol in university,…

A government study reveals that many students of non-English-speaking background in New South Wales (Australia) miss out on instruction in English as a Second Language, that their community languages are allowed to lapse, and that the relationships among different groups in the schools are not given the attention they deserve. (SLD)

Examined how encouragement and teachers' expectations influenced the way female students actively position themselves as high achievers in science classrooms. Results with 43 Year 10 Australian students show the importance of encouragement in student attitudes about science achievement. (SLD)

Examines ways in which social class affects the aspirations, expectations, achievement, and life-chances of children of all cultural origins in Australia. A comprehensive multicultural education would enable working class or disadvantaged non-English-speaking children to live comfortably with change and to live more rewarding lives. (SLD)