Search Results (96)

Background/Objectives: Parenting interventions are an effective way to support child development, and brief screening tools can support equitable implementation of parenting interventions by reducing program costs, increasing accessibility, and engaging populations who have traditionally been underserved. However, brief assessments are frequently overlooked and underutilized. The Family Check-Up (FCU) Online is a digital parenting intervention that integrates a brief FCU Online Assessment, feedback, and parenting skills via an app along with optional provider support. To date, no prior work has validated the FCU Online Assessment. Method: The current study combined two samples of parents participating in FCU Online studies and assessed: (1) reliability, (2) construct validity, (3) convergent validity by comparing FCU Online Assessment subscales to similar parenting and child behavior measures, and (4) predictive validity by using FCU Online Assessment at pretest to predict posttest scores as well as parenting and child behaviors at time 2 and time 3. Results: Strong reliability was found among all five subscales, including Low Conflict (7 items, α = .81), Positive Parenting Practices (11 items, α = .80), Positive School Behaviors (5 items, α = .83), Consistent Rules and Routines (11 items, α = .81), and Child Mental Health (5 items, α = .80). The FCU Online Assessment demonstrated construct and convergent validity, as well as predictive validity in that the FCU Online Assessment at pretest predicted posttest scores. Conclusions: The FCU Online Assessment is a brief, reliable, and valid measure of parenting and child wellbeing. It can be used by parents and providers alike to evaluate parenting skills and child mental health, develop targeted goals and intervention approaches, and assess family wellbeing over time. Full article

The return to in-person classes after the COVID-19 pandemic revealed an increase in physical violence among students of secondary school. This article examines the role of the school as a setting that enables students to learn how to coexist with others. Based on an educational qualitative research study conducted in two state-run schools in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, located in urban poverty contexts, it investigates the effects of COVID-19-induced isolation on school coexistence. The fieldwork involved participant observation, interviews, and analysis of student productions during school workshops. Students and teachers were selected through purposive sampling. The working hypothesis posits that learning to coexist involves not only dealing with conflicting situations but also the need to verbalize them, a practice that schools actively foster. The findings show that, by providing a place where time and space are shared, the school acts as a key mediator, where students’ physical and verbal interactions become essential to reconfiguring relationships among classmates. The study concludes that the school plays a decisive role in transforming conflict into voiced experience, replacing physical aggression with meaningful narratives. Full article

This study examines how protective factors contribute to teacher resilience and sustainable wellbeing during remote teaching, focusing specifically on parent-teachers who are balancing professional responsibilities with childcare. Within the broader context of research on educator resilience and professional practice, it explores the associations between social and organizational support, work–family conflict (WFC), and parenting self-efficacy (SE) and satisfaction, factors linked to educators’ capacity to manage dual roles effectively. The hypotheses were that (1) WFC would negatively correlate with parenting SE and satisfaction; (2) support from friends and family and from the workplace would be associated with lower WFC and higher parenting SE and satisfaction; and (3) WFC would mediate the relationship between support and parenting outcomes. Using a mixed-methods design with quantitative scales combined with open questions, data were collected through retrospective self-report questionnaires in relation to the COVID-19 lockdowns. The sample included 474 teachers who teach in schools in Israel and have children aged 0–12. The predictive mediation model confirmed the first two hypotheses, with partial support for the third. Qualitative findings provide insight into parent-teachers’ experiences, including gender-based differences, and emphasize factors associated with their adjustment to remote instruction. These findings contribute to understanding how social and organizational support—forms of collaborative and resilience-promoting mechanisms—may have an important role in promoting educator wellbeing through their negative association with work–family conflict. The findings should be examined further in longitudinal or experimental research and in additional cultural and educational contexts to examine their generalizability, as well as causality. Nonetheless, the findings provide possible directions for policy and interventions aimed at fostering resilience and sustainable wellbeing among teachers, particularly those navigating dual roles in their personal and professional lives. Full article

Transdisciplinary Research (TDR) leverages shared concepts to foster mutual learning among diverse stakeholders, relying on “boundary objects” to shape collective identities and visions. However, the existing literature often overlooks the critical roles of subjectivity and conflict in this process. This paper introduces an analytical framework to examine the construction of these objects, using the “Oasis Project” in the Ecuadorian Andes as a central case study. A research-action project on pesticide-free territories in Ecuador unearthed a question during its implementation on how to achieve collective action when key actors are in conflict with each other. Using TDR to find boundary objects where different viewpoints can find shared meaning, it was determined that there is not enough conceptual clarity in the literature around how conflict can actually help achieve coordination. Using a variety of qualitative methods, such as interviews, participatory observation, and analysis of WhatsApp group message texts, this study shows how the novel concepts of boundary entanglements and conflicts can help other researchers and practitioners facilitate impactful TDR. This study emphasizes three transformative lessons for sustainability science: first, boundary objects are inherently dynamic, evolving through continuous social negotiation rather than static definition; second, their successful consolidation requires deep integration into local knowledge systems, cultural norms, and governance structures; and third, and perhaps most critically, conflict and operational breakdowns are not indicators of failure; rather, they serve as vital diagnostic tools that unveil hidden power relations and epistemic boundaries, providing essential moments for critical reflection and the recalibration of collaborative sustainability strategies. Full article

Mining is an economic activity with significant socio-environmental implications, particularly in regions where communities depend directly on natural resources. This study aimed to analyze the perceptions of residents of the Pungala parish regarding the impacts of mining in the Alao River basin. A questionnaire was administered, considering sociodemographic, social, and environmental variables. The surveyed population was predominantly older adults and had a balanced gender distribution. The majority identified as indigenous or mestizo, with primarily secondary school educational levels and with a labor structure characterized by independent work. At the social level, mining is perceived as a source of economic benefits through job creation and increased income. However, negative impacts are also recognized, including conflicts over water use, displacement of families, and increased costs of goods and services. From an environmental perspective, the majority perceived negative changes, particularly water pollution, deforestation, erosion, and biodiversity loss. Regarding the ecosystem services, provisioning services were perceived as having the greatest importance and frequency of use, especially water for human consumption, irrigation, and productive activities. These results demonstrate the coexistence of benefits and risks and highlight the need for sustainable management strategies that integrate ecosystem conservation and community well-being. Full article

Student employment is an increasingly common feature of higher education, yet psychological research on students who combine paid work and study remains conceptually and methodologically fragmented. This scoping review mapped the extent, range, and nature of empirical evidence on working students’ psychological experiences, summarized key psychosocial correlates, and identified gaps for future research. Consistent with PRISMA-ScR guidance, we searched EBSCOhost, Scopus, and Web of Science using tailored Boolean title-field strategies without year limits, screened records against eligibility criteria, and charted and thematically synthesized extracted data. Forty-two peer-reviewed English-language studies were included. Evidence clustered into six recurrent domains, such as work–study interface processes, resources and supports, health, stress and recovery, academic engagement and performance, career development and employability, and identity and social relations. The literature was predominantly quantitative and cross-sectional, with comparatively few intervention studies. Findings suggest that psychological outcomes are frequently examined through, and may be more closely contingent on, the quality of the work–study interface and contextual supports than on employment intensity alone, highlighting the potential value of interventions and institutional/employer practices that enhance role fit, flexibility, and supportive climates, alongside more longitudinal and multi-level research. Full article

This article examines how everyday architecture can advance spatial justice in post-active conflict cities through ethnographic and participatory design. Drawing on a decade of work by the StreetSpace studio in Belfast (2015–2025), the paper explores how architecture students and community participants co-design spatial strategies that enhance mixed-use mid-density living, inclusive mobility, and street-level accessibility. In a context where car dominance, segregation, and privatisation of public space continue to fragment urban life, the everyday street becomes a testbed for envisioning an equitable and community-centred city. The studio’s methodology is grounded in ethnographic engagement, informed by an embedded anthropologist, and includes stakeholder mapping, walking workshops, and collaborative drawing. These practices reveal lived experiences and shape community-driven briefs for housing, schools, public spaces, and multifunctional infrastructure. Anchored in spatial justice discourse and feminist theory (Jane Jacobs, David Harvey, Roberto Rocco, Phil Hubbard, Leslie Kern, and Caroline Criado Perez), the work positions the everyday as a site of architectural agency and proposes a contemporary vernacular that is socially embedded and climate-resilient. This work unfolds through complex and often contested processes that require sustained, iterative engagement with people and places. Meaningful collaboration is neither linear nor inherently caring; it frequently involves conflict, disagreement, and competing priorities that must be navigated over time. Through long-term relationships with government departments, local authorities, and NGOs, StreetSpace demonstrates how architectural pedagogy can nonetheless contribute to policy formation and more inclusive urban redevelopment by engaging in compromise, critical negotiation, and moments of care alongside friction and resistance. Through a series of collaborations and public events the project has contributed to the transformation of Botanic Avenue, informed studies of the East Belfast Greenways through contributions to Groundswell and participated in embedded public processes in collaboration with PPR, culminating in an exhibition at the MAC in Belfast in 2025. Full article

Teacher burnout is a pressing global issue with significant implications for educational quality. Although work–family conflict (WFC) is a well-documented cause of teacher burnout, the psychological mechanisms underlying this relationship remain insufficiently understood and warrant examination through the lens of individual resources and positive psychology. This study investigated the relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and burnout among Chinese elementary and middle school teachers, with a specific focus on the mediating and moderating roles of hope and a stress-is-enhancing mindset. Data were collected from 452 teachers (including 355 females) using well-validated scales. The results revealed that: (1) WFC was found to be directly and positively associated with burnout, as well as indirectly associated through the mediating role of hope. (2) A stress-is-enhancing mindset moderates the negative association between WFC and hope. Specifically, the negative association between WFC and hope was significantly weaker among teachers with a high level of this mindset compared to those with a low level. These findings suggest that fostering hope and cultivating a stress-is-enhancing mindset can mitigate burnout risk, pointing to a viable pathway for promoting occupational well-being by developing teachers’ psychological resources. Full article

Background/Objectives. ICD–11 classifies burnout as a work-related issue arising from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. According to the Job Demands/Resources Model, job demands represent sources of stress and job resources may buffer the impact of job demands on job strain. Since every profession has its specific spectre of work demands/resources related to stress development, the aim of this study was to examine a model predicting workplace burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion—EE, depersonalisation—DP, personal accomplishment—PA) in special educational needs (SEN) and general education (GE) teachers, with job demands representing potential “risk factors” and job resources potential “protective factors”. Methods. The study involved 116 SEN teachers from eight primary schools for children with learning difficulties and a sample of 145 teachers from general primary schools in the Belgrade region, which was balanced according to the representation of the main demographic variables in the SEN group. The Maslach Burnout Inventory and Job Characteristics Questionnaire were the instruments employed. Results. No difference was found between SEN and GE teachers in the intensity of burnout dimensions. In the SEN group, Changes were the predictors of all three burnout dimensions, Work environment for EE and DP, Emotional demands and Support from colleagues for EE, Cognitive/Quantitative for PA, and Job control for PA. Concerning the GE group, Support from colleagues predicted all three dimensions, Job control EE and DP, Cognitive/Quantitative DP and PA, Changes DP, and Role conflict and Seniority EE. Conclusions. The results of the study provide a foundation for further testing of a hypothetical predictive model of burnout with job demands as direct predictor and job resources as mediators of this relation. Full article

Over the last decade, Cameroon has been embroiled in a violent civil conflict. In 2016, protests within the minority Anglophone regions against the obligatory use of French in schools triggered a period of considerable unrest, in which hundreds of people have been incarcerated and killed. Following an increased security presence in the English-speaking regions, armed groups surfaced calling for secession—the creation of an independent nation of Ambazonia. The failure to resolve the crisis peacefully through dialogue has resulted in a spiral of violence between armed separatists and the military. Building on the work of Frantz Fanon, this paper offers an analysis of the construction of these identities before and after European colonisation. In mapping the contours of Francophone and Anglophone assimilation it seeks to explore how the current crisis might be resolved through what Fanon describes as a transformation of the collective unconscious and what the Nigerian philosopher Cyril Orji describes as a psychological transition away from prejudice against the Other. Full article

Family-to-work conflict is a common phenomenon among university teachers and can decrease their innovative work behavior. However, the mechanism underlying such conflict remains uncertain. To clarify the relationship between family-to-work conflict and innovative work behavior and explore the mechanism underlying this relationship, this study combines conservation of resources theory with gender role theory and employs the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. Questionnaires completed by 916 university teachers were analyzed with the assistance of SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 24.0. The findings reveal that family-to-work conflict negatively influences innovative work behavior and that challenge stress and hindrance stress significantly mediate the relationship between family-to-work conflict and innovative work behavior, albeit in opposite directions. Specifically, challenge stress exerts a positive mediating effect on the relationship between family-to-work conflict and innovative work behavior, whereas hindrance stress demonstrates a negative mediating effect in the association. Additionally, gender significantly moderates the relationships between family-to-work conflict and challenge stress and between family-to-work conflict and hindrance stress. These results shed light on the inherent mechanisms that govern the relationship between family-to-work conflict and innovative work behavior among university teachers and highlight the significance of two types of work stress, i.e., challenge stress and hindrance stress, as well as gender in this context. In addition, this research offers fresh insights that can support future investigations of how schools and governments can promote innovative work behavior among university teachers. Full article

Humanity currently faces a state of crisis, as it navigates the challenges of a quickly evolving world. The increasing number of conflicts and wars has had serious repercussions on human life, contributing to the displacement of populations and a growing influx of refugees. The high number of children and young people among this group requires urgent action to meet their needs for education, health, and a secure upbringing. Music education provides one platform for unique expression and identity for these age groups. In 2022, nearly a hundred young musicians from Afghanistan were welcomed into the cities of Braga and Guimarães in Portugal. They work to defend their culture through orchestral activity which has achieved international reach, thanks to the work of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM). This article examines how music connects Afghan refugee youth with host communities. It focuses on the role of musical practice in fostering integration within schools and the broader urban context. Using a qualitative approach, based on ethnographic observation of this orchestra’s rehearsals, this article explores the concept of affordances. Ethnographic observation was conducted throughout school activities, music workshops, and informal interactions during break periods. Field notes focused on participants’ non-verbal expressions, musical engagement, and interactions with both peers and educators. These observations were used to contextualise the interviews and triangulate the data. This theoretical–analytical approach shows that, for these youngsters, music plays a mediating role regarding social actions and experiences, shaping new subjectivities and their externalisations. It is a technology of the self, of (re)adaptation, resistance, and identity re-emergence. The main argument is that ANIM’s music in action is a communication tool that, like migratory processes, reconfigures the identities of its protagonists. Music has been demonstrated to function as a catalyst for connection, predominantly within the context of ensemble and orchestra rehearsals, serving as a shared language. Full article

This study analyzed the intersection between Afrodescendant ethnoeducation and the school-to-work transition in three marginalized communities of the Colombian Caribbean: La Boquilla, Tierra Bomba, and Libertad-Sucre. Using a qualitative methodology, the research reconstructed, on the one hand, the institutional framework of Afro-Colombian ethnoeducation since the 1991 Constitution, highlighting public policies implemented and their impacts. On the other hand, it examined the educational dynamics in these localities and their link (or lack thereof) to local labor markets, identifying innovations, limitations, and structural barriers affecting young people’s transition from school to work. The findings show that the Colombian ethnoeducational model has introduced curricular and participatory innovations aimed at enhancing cultural relevance and preparing students for productive life. However, its implementation faces persistent barriers including inadequate infrastructure, the legacies of internal armed conflict, structural racism, limited employment opportunities, and chronic public disinvestment. Despite valuable local initiatives—such as technical training in collaboration with the SENA (National Learning Service, Colombia’s public technical education system) in sectors like fishing and tourism—Afrodescendant youth continue to experience limited labor market integration. Finally, the article offers policy and practical recommendations from a decolonial ethnoeducational perspective, inspired by the pedagogy for liberation, to strengthen the school-to-work transition in contexts of vulnerability. Full article

Prior research has largely neglected the issue of violence perpetrated by teachers against students, even though evidence indicates its prevalence worldwide. Research has also overlooked teachers’ perspectives on these concerning phenomena, relying predominantly on student reports. To address this gap, this cross-sectional study used a sample of 214 teachers from six Hebrew-language and four Arabic-language middle and high schools across Israel (69.2% female; 61.2% older than 41 years) to predict teachers’ reports on teacher-to-student victimization based on teachers’ victimization by students and parents, school social climate, and three dimensions of the school organizational climate: interpersonal conflict at work, trust in the principal, and job socialization. Chi-square and t-tests were used to examine the bivariate associations between teacher-to-student victimization and the predictors, and a three-step hierarchical binary logistic regression was used to examine multivariate associations. Teachers who reported teacher-to-student victimization scored higher on interpersonal conflict at work, social climate, trust in the principal, and job socialization compared to those who did not report such violence. Binary logistic regression analysis predicting teacher-to-student victimization revealed that Arabic-speaking teachers were more likely to report such victimization compared to their Hebrew-speaking counterparts. Teachers who reported a less positive school climate and higher levels of interpersonal conflict in the workplace were far more likely to report incidents of teacher-to-student victimization. The study highlights key directions for practice to address teacher-to-student victimization, including the establishment of a more positive social and organizational climate, with an emphasis on the role of the school principal as a central component of this initiative. Full article

This community-based participatory research (CBPR) study explored, using a Photovoice methodology, the lived expeiences of northeastern Black and/or African American youth and mothers who were currently experiencing the incarceration of their fathers and husbands. Grounded in critical theories of dual consciousness and comparative conflict, the findings provide valuable insights into how this population navigates the intersections of family, school, and community within the context of the criminal legal system, and, in the process, underscore the relevance of Abolitionist practice in capturing their theoretically lived experiences. Participants documented through photography and narrative reflections the multifaceted impacts of incarceration on fathers and husbands, including disrupted family dynamics, social stigma, and barriers to community resources. A focus group with the mothers of these youth highlighted the profound impact of incarceration on their family structure, revealing significant emotional burdens for caregivers as well as personal changes to parenting styles as a result of this project. A central theme that emerged was the development of a “double” or “dual consciousness”—an ability to see humanity and injustice in their circumstances, fueling a desire for systemic change. Overall, this CBPR project amplifies the voices of marginalized youth and mothers, illuminating how the criminal legal system perpetuates cycles of trauma, stigma, and disempowerment. The implications call for a radical reimagining of the role of social work in creating more equitable, restorative, and healing-centered communities, including an immediate embrace of Abolitionist practice concepts and interventions. Full article