This study replicates an earlier study (Markopolous & Bernard, 2015) that evaluated the impact of the program, Bullying: The Power to Cope (Bernard, 2019) on potential victim’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses. The program is aimed at teaching student rational beliefs and coping skills they can employ to cope with various types of bullying. In the present study, participating classes were randomly allocated to either an experimental or control condition. The study conducted in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, consisted 115 participants (n = 55, experimental group; n = 60 in the control group), 57 males and 58 females, aged 10 to 14 years of age. Self-report data was collected pre- and post-test, measuring children’s cognitive, behavioral and emotional coping responses to four written bullying vignettes. Measures of state and trait anxiety were also collected at pre- and post-tests. Results revealed students in the experimental group significantly improved in cognitive and emotional coping responses compared with students in the control group. Nonsignificant differences were found between males and females and between primary and secondary school students on their response to the program. State anxiety did not influence responsiveness to the program, but students with lower levels of trait anxiety (pre-test) made significantly greater improvements on emotional coping responses compared to students with higher levels of trait anxiety. Implications of these findings are discussed as well as limitations and considerations for future research.

This book is a newly revised version of the highly influential text, Rational Emotive Behavioral Approaches to Childhood Disorders: Theory, Practice and Research, based on an earlier volume by Bernard and Ellis.

This paper reports on the social and emotional well-being (SEWB) of 66,767 young people (grades 2–12) in Australia enrolled in 404 government/state, independent and Catholic schools who completed the ACER Social-Emotional Well-Being Surveys between 2003 and 2014. Based on the Rasch measurement methodology, an ecological model of SEWB was described on a continuum on which five qualitatively distinct SEWB levels were identified: Low, Emerging, Developing, Highly Developed and Very Highly Developed. Details of the different aspects of the external (school, home and community) and internal strengths (social, emotional, learning skills; values) as well as the feelings and behaviors that characterize each level of SEWB are described. Implications of these findings for program planning for young people with mental health problems and recommendations for future research conclude the paper.

The effect of a mental health promotion program based on cognitive behavioral therapy and social-emotional learning called “You Can Do It! Education” on the resilience of elementary school students was evaluated. Participants were fourth grade students at elementary schools in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, who were assigned to the intervention (n=78) or control (n=47) group. The intervention group was taught eight program lessons by a visiting counselor, which covered topics related to resilience and the relationships of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The intervention group showed significant improvements in resilience and social support, whereas the control group did not. We discuss the program’s feasibility for enhancing resilience and its limitations in Japanese school settings.

This research evaluates the impact of a teacher professional development program, “Attitudes and Behaviors for Learning” (AB4L) on the achievement of students struggling with reading.  Two primary school teachers from two economically disadvantaged schools received three half-day training sessions in practices to teach students positive attitudes and behaviors for learning, which they implemented during literacy classes. 98 students were taught the AB4L program while 86 students were not. Results include: (a) Student- and teacher-rated learning behaviors were positive correlated with objective reading performance; (b) A significant benefit of AB4L on the reading performance of those students who scored in the lower 50 percent of their class on a reading comprehension survey; (c) Students in classes where AB4L was implemented who showed improvements in reading comprehension also showed increases in behaviors for learning. A recommendation is that teacher professional development programs should incorporate positive attitudes and behaviors for learning.