This issue completes the first volume of my editorship of the journal and I would like to thank all the contributors and reviewers for their hard work. There have been some exciting developments with the journal over the past year as we strive to improve the quality and reach of the AEDP. For the first time we have been successful in being listed with SCOPUS and PsycINFO, which ensures that the articles published in the journal are available internationally. This will hopefully mean that many more high quality manuscripts from Australia and overseas will start to be submitted to the journal, which can only increase the standing of the AEDP over the next few years. Currently we are being assessed by Thomson Reuters for an impact factor, but this may take another year before we know if we have been successful in this endeavour.

This will be the first issue of The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist (AEDP) that will be published by Cambridge University Press. This will mark a significant step forward in ensuring that the work that this journal publishes is given a more international audience, thus ensuring that quality Australian research is viewed more widely. Over time, there should be an increase in international authors who submit to the journal, thereby providing a wider focus for discussing practice and academic issues in educational and developmental psychology. In this issue, all five articles have a focus on children and adolescents, and provide an eclectic overview of interventions and research that will benefit this group. Kavanagh, Freeman, and Ainley present findings from their study on teacher–student interactions, which demonstrates that adolescent boys appreciate positive feedback and a helpful and caring environment in the school. Continuing the focus on adolescents, Martinez, Martin, Liem, and Colmar consider, through a longitudinal study, the link between physical health and psychological wellbeing at the crucial transition stage between leaving school and postschool life. Their study places value on ensuring that postschool wellbeing is prepared for while still in the school sector. In a world of ever-increasing electronic interconnectivity, Neira and Barber provide a timely article that suggests that adolescents do not gain the same level of positive developmental experiences from online social networking when compared to traditional leisure activities. Despite the rapid advance of social networking for all ages, it is an interesting finding that a balance is needed with the physical world. McDonald, Moore, and Anderson discuss the positive benefits derived from using different types of functional assessment on a child with autism, and discuss the usefulness of one approach to positively improve desired behaviour in the case-study child. Finally, Hamilton and Wyver discuss the importance to parents of the New South Wales Child Personal Health Record and how this can be better improved to provide more support to the parents when the perceived need is greatest.

The present research describes the preliminary evaluation of Mindfields, a self-regulatory intervention designed to enhance the development of life skills and self-set goals among school-aged adolescent offenders. Differences between intervention and control participants pre- and post-treatment were assessed using the Mindfields Assessment Battery (MAB). Twenty-four adolescents from a youth correctional facility, youth justice service centres, and alternative education schools (Mage = 14.79, SD = 1.47) were assigned to either an intervention group (n = 18) or a wait-list control group (n = 6). At pre-intervention, there were no significant differences between intervention and control participants. Post-intervention analysis between the two groups revealed that intervention participants reported significant reductions in self-reported delinquency and impulsivity compared to the control group. Moreover, while the pre- to post- intervention scores for the control participants remained relatively stable, the pre- to post-scores for intervention participants indicated significant reductions for pro-delinquency and improvements in self-satisfaction. Preliminary findings are promising and provide evidence for the effectiveness of this new self-regulatory intervention for school-aged adolescents.

Relationships between teachers and students vary and the way these relationships are perceived by their members also differs. Seventy Australian adolescent boys described their relationship with a key teacher using the My English Class questionnaire. The teachers described the same relationships using the Teacher Student Relationship Inventory. Student–teacher relationships generally were seen positively. Cluster analysis identified two distinct profiles of student–teacher relationship for both student and teacher perceptions. In 44% of cases, perceptions of boys and teachers did not match. The boys considered positive feedback and a caring, helpful attitude towards themselves important elements of a strong relationship whereas teachers considered help-seeking important.

The present longitudinal investigation explored the extent to which physical wellbeing predicts psychological wellbeing in a sample transitioning from school to postschool life. The study comprised 213 young people assessed in their final year of high school (T1) and then one year later (T2). Longitudinal structural equation modeling supported hypothesised paths at each time point, with physical health positively predicting psychological health and perceived life quality and satisfaction. At T2, physical health also positively predicted a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Supplementary analysis showed a significant cross-time effect from T1 psychological health to T2 physical health. Findings hold substantive and practical implications highlighting the importance of multidimensional and integrative approaches to understanding and enhancing the wellbeing of young people who are making the transition from late adolescence to early adulthood.

Dynamic assessment is increasingly being used by educational psychologists around the world and is largely seen as a valuable approach to assessing children and providing useful classroom suggestions to help teachers working with children who have learning difficulties. However, a common complaint about the approach is the difficulty in moving from theory to practice, and in particular how to feedback the results of a dynamic assessment to teaching staff, parents, and children in order to provide an effective programme of intervention. This article provides some background to a practical resource created by two practising educational psychologists who have developed a framework on how to put dynamic assessment into practice that has the potential to make meaningful gains in children's learning.

This study compared the degree to which social networking sites and structured extracurricular activities provided adolescents with positive developmental experiences. Given the relatively unique nature of social networking sites as a leisure context for adolescents, and the extremely fast rate at which this leisure activity has been adopted by the majority of youth in countries where the technology is easily accessible, it is important that research explores how this leisure context compares to more traditional extracurricular activities. Adolescents from eight high schools across the state of Western Australia were surveyed. The results showed that traditional structured leisure activities (e.g., sport, art) provided adolescents with more experiences of identity exploration and reflection and positive peer interactions than social networking site use. Further analysis compared differences within social networking site use and found that both the frequency with which an adolescent visited their social networking site, and the degree of investment they had in their social networking site, positively predicted greater experiences of identity exploration and reflection and positive peer interactions. Though social networking sites are a popular adolescent leisure activity, they do not provide the same level of positive developmental experiences that are afforded through adolescent participation in traditional structured extracurricular activities.

School bonding has been identified as a protective factor for a broad range of adolescent outcomes, and it is thus important to identify factors that foster positive relationships with school. The ecological perspective suggests the importance of both individual and contextual antecedents across developmental periods, yet previous research has tended to examine only a narrow selection of school bonding correlates. This study sought to identify longitudinal influences on school bonding, examining the role of both individual and contextual factors over childhood and early adolescence. We draw on data from 1,308 participants (51% female) in the Australian Temperament Project, a large representative Australian sample that has followed the psychosocial development of participants from infancy to adulthood, and thus provides a rare opportunity to address this gap in the literature. Path analysis was conducted to examine individual and contextual predictors of school bonding at 15–16 years. The individual characteristics of higher academic achievement and sociability, and lower hyperactivity predicted school bonding. Contextual factors also made a significant contribution, including the parent–child relationships and maternal education. The results indicate that both individual and contextual factors make unique contributions to school bonding in adolescence, suggesting a number of potential targets for intervention.

This article discusses the efficacy of different methods of referring children for educational psychological services from the perspective of resilience theorising and research. Four referral systems are considered, and they are intake, patch, screening, and cross-agency referrals. It is argued that the intake system, where referrals are received by a central agency from a number of sources, is problematic from a practice as well as a theoretical perspective. The patch approach is where an educational psychologist works in a defined geographical area, and this system is recommended instead because it promotes an in-depth understanding of the particular circumstances of children, parents, and teachers. It is also suggested that geographical patches, plus the screening of students at several developmental points, is the most useful referral approach because it combines comparative standards and local knowledge. As well, cross-agency referrals, which are referrals from other social service agencies, can function as useful sources of clients for psychological services

There has been considerable research addressing functional assessment procedures, but little direct comparison of the practical utility of different methods of assessment. The aim of this study was to examine three different methods of conducting functional assessments of problem behaviours of a child with autism. Data obtained through indirect, direct and experimental functional assessment methods in both a classroom and playground setting were compared. Although results from both the indirect and direct observation methods gave some indication of the possible function of the target behaviour, the functional analysis provided conclusive results that the behaviour was maintained by access to preferred activities/tangibles. A brief trial of an intervention based on these results was effective in reducing problem behaviour and increasing desired behaviour.

Test anxiety (TA) affects exam performance and has been found to be composed of a cognitive (worry) and emotional component. The cognitive component has been implicated in the performance decrements seen in individuals with high TA; however, interventions involving cognitive therapies have provided mixed and limited outcomes with regard to improvement in performance. This article explores TA in relation to attentional control theory, which provides a framework for the impact of anxiety on working memory and cognitive performance. Possible interventions for the treatment of TA guided by attentional control theory will then be discussed and the need for further research to explore the efficacy of these interventions established.

In New South Wales, Australia, the Child Personal Health Record (CPHR, aka ‘The Blue Book’, which includes notes on health and development) is proclaimed as an important document with widespread use throughout the state. Despite the significance of the record, there are few published evaluations of the efficacy of the CPHR. Parental use and views of the CPHR were examined using a two-phase, mixed-method design. One hundred and twenty mothers completed an online questionnaire, which included questions on demographics, use and views of the CPHR and child care experience. Six of these mothers participated in a follow-up interview. Perceived value of the CPHR was at its highest when the child was younger and if the child was first-born. The CPHR is used by medical professionals, yet broadening its use may increase efficiency of information transfer and promote parent understanding of developmental records, especially on growth indicators such as head circumference, which are not well understood. Implications for CPHRs as an empowering tool for families are considered.