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With high rates of psychological distress reported amongst children internationally, the developm... more With high rates of psychological distress reported amongst children internationally, the development and evaluation of new program initiatives is critical in order to meet the challenge of this burgeoning issue. Both acceptance and commitment therapy and adventure therapy are emerging as popular strategies to elevate psychological wellbeing. This small-scale program evaluation focuses on nine upper primary school-aged children enrolled in a specialist school in Australia for children with challenging behavior and/or emotional needs. Participants completed a newly developed 8-week intervention entitled 'ACT in the Outdoors' which combined key principles of both acceptance and commitment therapy and adventure therapy. The program was evaluated via a combination of pre and post participant psychological measures, and post interviews with participants and teachers. The results of this small-scale preliminary evaluation suggest that a portion of the participating children reported improvements in psychological wellbeing and skill development. Improvements appear to be mitigated by attendance and level of psychological wellbeing upon program entry. Based on this premise, the results suggest that more research is warranted to further understand the potential benefit of this innovative interdisciplinary approach.
"This study examines the development of self-esteem in a sample of 138 Australian adolescents (90... more "This study examines the development of self-esteem in a sample of 138 Australian adolescents (90 boys; 48 girls) with cognitive abilities in the lowest 15% (L-CA) and a matched sample of 556 Australian adolescents (312 boys; 244 girls) with average to high levels of cognitive abilities (A/H-
CA). These participants were measured annually (Grade 7 to 12). The findings showed that" adolescents with L-CA and A/H-CA experience similar high and stable self-esteem trajectories that present similar relations with key predictors (sex, school usefulness and dislike, parenting, and peer integration). Both groups revealed substantial gender differences showing higher levels of self-esteem for boys remaining relatively stable over time, compared to lower levels among girls which decreased until mid-adolescence before increasing back.
With high rates of psychological distress reported amongst children internationally, the developm... more With high rates of psychological distress reported amongst children internationally, the development and evaluation of new program initiatives is critical in order to meet the challenge of this burgeoning issue. Both acceptance and commitment therapy and adventure therapy are emerging as popular strategies to elevate psychological wellbeing. This small-scale program evaluation focuses on nine upper primary school-aged children enrolled in a specialist school in Australia for children with challenging behavior and/or emotional needs. Participants completed a newly developed 8-week intervention entitled 'ACT in the Outdoors' which combined key principles of both acceptance and commitment therapy and adventure therapy. The program was evaluated via a combination of pre and post participant psychological measures, and post interviews with participants and teachers. The results of this small-scale preliminary evaluation suggest that a portion of the participating children reported improvements in psychological wellbeing and skill development. Improvements appear to be mitigated by attendance and level of psychological wellbeing upon program entry. Based on this premise, the results suggest that more research is warranted to further understand the potential benefit of this innovative interdisciplinary approach.
"This study examines the development of self-esteem in a sample of 138 Australian adolescents (90... more "This study examines the development of self-esteem in a sample of 138 Australian adolescents (90 boys; 48 girls) with cognitive abilities in the lowest 15% (L-CA) and a matched sample of 556 Australian adolescents (312 boys; 244 girls) with average to high levels of cognitive abilities (A/H-
CA). These participants were measured annually (Grade 7 to 12). The findings showed that" adolescents with L-CA and A/H-CA experience similar high and stable self-esteem trajectories that present similar relations with key predictors (sex, school usefulness and dislike, parenting, and peer integration). Both groups revealed substantial gender differences showing higher levels of self-esteem for boys remaining relatively stable over time, compared to lower levels among girls which decreased until mid-adolescence before increasing back.