Adolescent mental health and activities in the period of social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the forms of youth activity (in a virtual environment and in the real world) and their mental health in the period of forced social isolation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings presented here are part of a larger international project (research-all.org). Methods: The subjects were students of primary and secondary schools in Kraków (N = 455), aged 11 to 18 (M = 15.38, SD = 2.10). The instruments used in this study were: the MHC-SF Karas, Cieciuch and Keyes wellbeing scale, the Connor-Davidson CD-RSC resilience scale, and the DASS-21 Lovibond scale designed to measure depression, anxiety and stress. The participants also reported the amount of time they spent on eight types of activity (online and offline) during and before social isolation. Results: Correlation analysis showed that the more time students spend actively in a virtual environment, the higher the level of depression (r = 0.27; p < 0.001), anxiety (r = 0.25; p < 0.001), stress (r = 0.25; p < 0.001). The duration of online activity is also negatively correlated with psychological well-being (r = -0.13; p = 0.013), emotional well-being (r = -0.15; p = 0.003) and social well-being (r = -0.12; p = 0.026). Well-being increases with a higher number of activities that are not mediated by a screen medium (r = 0.17; p = 0.001). Conclusions: Social isolation resulted in an increase in online activity both in education and in the social life of young people. The results obtained indicate the intensification of negative affectivity in adolescents who spend more time in the online environments. Moreover, the protective role of non-Internet physical and social activities for the mental health of young people has been demonstrated.

The development of an instrument to test pre-service teachers' beliefs consistent and inconsistent with self-regulation theory.

BACKGROUND: Students are more effective when they employ appropriate strategies to regulate their learning processes and outcomes. However, many teachers do not provide, or provide very little, explicit instructions to promote this self-regulated learning (SRL). This suggests that teachers' belief systems may include beliefs that may be inconsistent with SRL. AIMS: This paper reported the validation of the 78-item Beliefs about Teaching and Learning (BALT) instrument designed to measure pre-service teachers' beliefs about learning and teaching with particular emphasis on SRL. SAMPLES: Out of the 78 items included in the BALT instrument, 50 of them were administered in BALT 1 and 53 in BALT2 with 25 items administered in both surveys and were common to both instruments. The BALT 1 was administered to 430 pre-service teachers. BALT 2 was administered to 366 pre-service students. METHODS: Confirmatory factor analysis and the Rasch model were used to investigate the unidimensionality of the scales and psychometric properties of the items. In addition, the summated rating scale procedure was used to create composite scores for the examination of the coexistence of beliefs both consistent and inconsistent with SRL. RESULTS: Pre-service teachers expressed high overall agreement with items related to beliefs consistent with SRL and low agreement with items related to beliefs inconsistent with SRL. However, many of them also indicated high agreement with items related to beliefs in Transmissive Teaching. CONCLUSIONS: The study resulted in the development of a 58-item instrument, which was balanced with respect to the inclusion of SRL-consistent and SRL-inconsistent items. This study also provided evidence for the coexistence of pre-service teachers' beliefs in Constructive Teaching and Transmissive Teaching.

Self-reported harm of adolescent peer aggression in three world regions.

While the poor psychosocial outcomes of young people who have experienced bullying are well known, the harm associated with experiences that do not meet the bullying criteria is not well understood. The aim of this study was to examine the level of harm associated with experiences of peer aggression, as well as bullying, by directly measuring the four elements of intent, perceived harm, repetition and power imbalance that comprise the bullying criteria. The purpose of the study was to establish whether bullying was the most harmful form of peer aggression and whether other types of peer aggression that did not comprise all elements of bullying were comparably harmful. Over 6000 students (aged 11-16) from 10 countries completed a student victimization and aggression questionnaire. Data showed that approximately 50% of participants were not intentionally harmed through peer aggression, although this varied across countries, ranging from 10% in India to 87.5% in Taiwan. In all countries, analyses identified a group that had experienced repeated peer aggression, but with no power imbalance, comparable in size to the bullied group, suggesting that bullying is just "the tip of the iceberg". Victims of bullying self-reported the greatest experiences of harm, although victims of repeated aggression reported comparable harm. The findings show that peer aggression experiences that do not meet the bullying criteria are also rated as harmful by victims. More research is needed to fully understand negative peer interactions that include behaviors outside the scope of the bullying definition, particularly with regard to repeated peer aggression. This study suggests that researchers should consider the level of harm experienced by individuals and avoid terminology such as bullying, while policy makers should place a strong and explicit focus on encompassing a broader realm of harmful peer aggression.