Current theory and research in the area of motivation indicate that while frequent academic failures are clearly undesirable, temporary failure in challenging academic tasks can have important psychological benefits when followed by successful coping. However, teachers' responses during our school reform programme suggest that some special…

In this article, the author discusses how to help Kyle, a 5-year-old child who is struggling with his parent's new marriage. Kyle's teacher's story describing Kyle's behavior in the classroom as well as the parent's story based on Kyle's home life are presented. Among other things, the author provides an assessment of the situation and offers…

Generally, when a student or a staff member coped with the psychological aftermath of a tragedy, they did so without the involvement-or responsibility-of school personnel. But educators have come to recognize that schools play a critical role in any crisis response and care system serving children and youth. This is true whether teachers are…

In this essay, I address the problem of White racism in the classroom, proposing a way of reading racist discourse that takes into account its emotional dimensions and hence its persuasive appeal for White students. This way of reading begins with the insight that racist language functions metaphorically, and that it acts as a rhetorical bridge…

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently presented a multidimensional classification scheme for describing health status and the experience of disablement. This new framework, the "International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health" (ICF; WHO, 2001), is a revision of WHO's prior framework for describing the consequences of…

Background: There is a lack of a conceptual framework as to how stress and attribution variables interact and influence staff behaviour in response to challenging behaviour. To address this, a model is tested examining the impact of stress on attributions of challenging behaviour within Weiner's model of helping. Method: A total of 107 staff…

Pregnancy is a developmental task that requires women to become accustomed to inherent and sometimes profound biological, somatic, and psychological changes. When pregnancy is interrupted by miscarriage, it may become a pivotal crisis point in the development of a woman's maternal identity as well as an issue in family development. This manuscript…

Research has begun to focus on how victims of school bullying cope, but there is still little understanding of why pupils will cope in one particular way and not another. This paper aimed to examine the effects of gender, stage of schooling, frequency of victimisation, and different emotions (anger, vengeance, self-pity, indifference, and…

Most high school students grapple with profound questions of loss, love, and letting go; of meaning, purpose, and service; of self-reliance and community; of choice and surrender. The classroom community can profoundly influence how students respond to these questions--with love, denial, apathy, or even violence. When students work together, they…

In this article, the author discusses self-injury, which is a strategy to manage painful emotions. Generally, it is not about attempting suicide. In addition, it operates in complex ways. One one level, it is a method of communicating feelings when the self-injurer lacks other skills with which to express them. On another level, it helps people…

Current practice for assessing children and adolescents rely on objectively scored deficit-based models and/or informal assessments to determine how maladaptive behaviors affect performance. Social-emotional assessment instruments are used in schools and typically provide information related to behavioral and emotional deficits, but provide little…

This paper describes a systematic research program examining the remedial and preventive effects of coping skills training for the management of anxiety. The general conceptual/methodological frameworks guiding the project, the rationale behind selection of fears as the target problem, and the coping skills training as the preventive intervention…

Describes the efforts of five pupil service personnel in a small, midwestern school system in responding to student, teacher, and parent needs after a 14-year-old boy wounded two teachers and a student and killed the principal in a shooting spree. Suggests that schools develop tactical plans for responding to catastrophic situations. (Author)

Describes steps taken by the American Broadcasting Corporation to assess the public's reaction to "The Day After." Pre-broadcast activities included a literature review, consultation with child development specialists, viewer's guide development, focus group research, and recommendations regarding children's viewing. Post-broadcast…

Defining emotional competence as the demonstration of self-efficacy in emotion-eliciting social transactions, this paper presents a model of emotional competence that explores the factors and skills contributing to the development of a mature emotional response that supports an individual's social goals. The paper first describes the primary…