Australian Journal of Psychology最新文献

Objective: Recent evidence that few help-seeking children and adolescents receive evidence-based care for anxiety in Australia highlighted the need for an increased understanding of clinical decision-making in this field. This article reports on a survey that explored the perspective of clinicians regarding the care they provide for children and adolescents with anxiety disorders, and the factors influencing this decision-making process. Underlying decision-making constructs were investigated, including theoretical orientation, assessment, treatment planning and techniques, attitudes towards research and sources used to support clinical practice. Willingness to engage with clinical decision support was also examined.

Method: A sample of Australian mental health practitioners (n = 42) completed an online survey investigating clinical treatment decisions and the principles underlying their choices.

Results: Generally, clinicians subscribe to more than one theoretical orientation, with a majority incorporating a CBT approach. Clinical assessment and treatment formulation processes aligned with evidence-based practices and recommendations. Most clinicians reported high esteem for research to inform both their theoretical approach and clinical practice, and most respondents indicated interest in user-testing a decision support tool.

Conclusions: In contrast to earlier research, Australian clinicians self-report routine employment of evidence-based practices to guide clinical assessment, treatment formulation and treatment delivery in their practices.

Objective: Gender identity is contextually dependent yet is often studied as a static trait. This study used ecological momentary assessment to examine daily variations in multiple dimensions of gender identity (gender salience, gender typicality, gender discontentedness, felt pressure to conform to gender stereotypes) and their associations with gender proportion and location.

Method: Participants (N = 138; M_age = 19.31; 67 men) completed 4 to 5 reports a day on gender identity and social contexts for 7 days, resulting in 4,409 reports.

Results: All gender identity components showed half as much within-person variance as between-person variance. When the other-gender proportion in the surrounding increased, participants scored higher in gender salience, and men felt more pressure to conform to gender stereotypes than women. When at home (versus other locations), participants scored lower in gender salience, gender typicality, and felt pressure, and men, in particular, reported higher gender discontentedness.

Conclusions: The findings support the social constructivist view that gender identity is dynamic. The findings are discussed in relation to developmental intergroup and distinctiveness theories and social role and reinforcement processes.

Objective: The Competencies of Professional Psychology Rating (COPPR) Scales provide a standardised, multi-dimensional framework for conceptualising and measuring the competencies of registered psychologists across all domains of practice. The COPPR Scales consist of both a self-report version for practitioner self-evaluation (the COPPR-S) and an observer version (COPPR-O) for supervisors and educators to rate competence of trainees. These scales have utility for psychologists to self-assess their competence within self-reflection, for supervisors to rate trainee competence, and for research and educational contexts.

Method: Following on from an initial pilot study, this study provides a psychometric evaluation of the COPPR-S, including tests of dimensionality, reliability and validity, with a sample of Australian Psychologists (N = 211).

Results: The confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the structure of the measure and all 11 domains of competence. Internal consistency was calculated for each of the domains and the total score, and strong support for convergent and divergent validity was obtained. In addition, the COPPR-S was able to discriminate between the three participant registration groups of provisional registration, general registration, and additional endorsements. Thus, strong support for the COPPR-S as a conceptual model of psychologist competencies and multi-dimensional measure was provided, and the items are presented for use in practice, education and research.

Background: Belonging is a critical determinant of well-being in early childhood, yet empirical research on this concept for children aged 3 to 8 is limited. Aims: This study aimed to identify factors that promote belonging in children aged 3-8 to address the gap in existing research.

Methods: The project involved the "Draw, Write, Tell" method to capture children's perspectives on belonging through drawings and verbal responses. Parents and caregivers administered the survey to their children.

Results: The study found that children's understanding of belonging included themes such as happiness, safety, friendship, inclusion, and a caring environment. Unique aspects of belonging were noted between different age groups, highlighting developmental differences.

Conclusion: This project provides a foundational basis for understanding belonging from the perspective of young children.

Objective: The Specific Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ; Fairbrother & Antony, 2012) is a 43-item scale that measures fear and interference towards various specific phobias. This study aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the SPQ in an Australian population.

Method: The sample consisted of 287 participants, aged 18-76 (M = 28.30, SD = 12.07).

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit of the multidimensional factor structure. The SPQ showed excellent internal consistency in total, fear items, interference items, and low to high internal consistency when classified into the five factors. The SPQ demonstrated adequate convergent and discriminant validity when correlated with the Specific Phobia Dimensional Scale and the Panic Disorder Severity Scale - Self Report, respectively.

Conclusions: Overall, the SPQ is a valid and reliable measure to use in an Australian community population. Future research is considered.

Objective: Enhancing a sense of belonging among teachers could be key to mitigating global teacher shortages. This study aimed to investigate teachers' sense of belonging in the Australian educational context.

Method: A sample of 3,206 teachers answered a survey with open-ended questions that were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results: The analysis identified six key themes influencing teachers' sense of belonging: Interpersonal relationships (peer relationships, student and parent relationships); Support and collaboration (providing and receiving support; team dynamics and collaborative efforts); Professional and personal growth (influence and contribution to society, professional learning opportunities, individual professional identity and characteristics); Institutional factors (leadership support, positive school environment, employment stability), Motivators (teaching passion, acknowledgment and appreciation); and External networks (engagement in professional networks).

Conclusions: The findings provide insights into strategies for enhancing teacher belonging, with potential implications for improving retention and addressing teacher shortages.

Objective: Despite gains in research knowledge, self-injury remains unduly and widely stigmatised. This can preclude people with lived experience from playing active and important roles in the field. In this paper, we discuss how people with lived experience can offer vital contributions in this regard.

Method: Position paper based on narrative review.

Results: According to the current and especially recent literature in the field, people with lived experience of self-injury can play significant roles as researchers, educators, clinicians, and advocates.

Conclusion: Given the unique perspectives and strength people with lived experience of self-injury have to offer, their contributions to the field need to be harnessed and championed. This requires concerted efforts to address stigma and otherwise unhelpful discourses. In doing so, a more inclusive field with greater representation of people with lived experience can be realised. This, in turn, is conducive to advancing our understanding of self-injury and promoting the wellbeing of all people with such lived experience.

Objective: This study investigated the link between personality, opinions on social and political issues, and social media use, as well as the moderating effects of social media use on the relationship between personality and those opinions. Past research suggests that personality, opinion direction (i.e. favourability of an issue), and social media use are inter-related. However, the relationship between personality and opinion strength (i.e. how extreme an opinion is disregarding favourability), and potential moderating effects of social media use on that relationship have yet to be investigated.

Method: Participants (N = 536) completed surveys measuring social media usage, personality, and opinions on various social issues.

Results: Several personality traits predicted opinion direction or strength on at least one social issue. When all social issues were combined to measure overall progressive opinions, openness and extraversion predicted opinion direction, and openness predicted opinion strength. Time spent on social media significantly predicted direction of opinions on several issues, as well as strength of opinion on the issue of gender equality, however it did not moderate any relationship between personality and opinion direction or strength.

Conclusions: Although opinions, personality, and social media use are sometimes related, individuals high or low in particular personality traits are at no greater risk of polarising due to social media use than anyone else.

Objective: While the relationship between career calling and its impact on organisations and employees has been well-documented, the connection between career calling and presenteeism remains unclear. This study aims to elucidate the positive relationship between career calling and presenteeism, as well as explore potential mitigation strategies. By drawing on work as calling theory and self-compassion literature, we investigate the mediating role of workaholism and the moderating effect of self-compassion in the relationship between career calling and presenteeism.

Methods: A time-lagged cross-sectional questionnaire was administered in three waves, with two-week intervals between each wave. A total of 218 valid responses were collected from nurses working in three hospitals located in northern China. Initially, confirmatory factor analysis was performed to establish discriminant validity. Subsequently, the SPSS macro Process 3.0 was utilised to test the mediating hypothesis, employing 5,000 bootstrap iterations to obtain 95% bias-corrected confidence intervals. Simple slope analysis was conducted to evaluate the moderating hypothesis. Finally, the estimated indirect effect and moderated mediation coefficients were calculated at both high and low values of the moderating variable to assess the moderated mediation hypothesis.

Results: Our research reveals the underlying mechanism of workaholism and the mitigative effects of self-compassion in the career calling and presenteeism linkage. The results indicate a positive indirect relationship between career calling and presenteeism via workaholism, and that this indirect effect is weaker when individuals exhibit higher levels of self-compassion.

Conclusion: The study sheds light on the relationship between career calling and workaholism and presenteeism among nurses, suggesting that self-compassion plays a pivotal role in the above relationship.

Objective: A common tendency among humans is the devaluation of remote, larger benefits in favour of immediate, smaller gains, a phenomenon known as temporal discounting. Exercising for health necessitates focusing on long-term health benefits while minimising perceived obstacles. Recent studies have demonstrated that experiencing nature may reduce the discounting tendency. We conducted a behavioural experiment to investigate whether exposure to natural environments could decrease temporal discounting, thereby enhancing the inclination to walk for health.

Method: In total, 140 participants were randomly assigned to view images of either natural or urban landscapes. They completed a measure of discounting and participated in a pedometer-based task. In this task, the selection of a meeting point at a greater or lesser distance, along with the additional distance walked, were used as indicators of health-oriented walking behaviour.

Results: Participants exposed to natural settings were more likely to choose a distant meeting point for returning the pedometer and engaged in greater additional walking than those exposed to urban settings. Temporal discounting played a mediating role in these effects.

Conclusions: These findings offer an explanation for the reduced propensity towards health-related exercise among urban residents, and provide a novel strategy for promoting exercise motivation in contemporary lifestyles.