Editorial

Welcome to the first issue of the new decade.

As you will have noticed the wrong cover was affixed to issue 24–4. Taylor and Francis will reprint the issue with the correct cover and issue a correction notice.

In the first paper Poonam Dhaka and Antonia Shitilitha Mukwiilongo discuss the assessment of emotional maturity of children living in residential homes in Namibia. They argue that their findings can be used to develop the appropriate strategies for psychological support and wellbeing of children in care in their setting.

In the second paper Katie Finning, Polly Waite, Kate Harvey, Darren Moore, Becky Davis, and Tamsin Ford, who are members of a highly influential team who work in the field of mental health and well-being, report the findings of a qualitative study of secondary school practitioners’ beliefs about risk factors for school attendance problems. They suggest that school staff have an important role to play in identifying pupils who require additional support to regularly attend school, but their beliefs about risk factors might influence their decisions regarding intervention. They identified poor mental health as a risk factor, but practitioners primarily focused on anxiety rather than other mental health problems like depression or behavioural disorders. They present a strong argument for the need for increased awareness of the role of school factors in attendance problems, focus on promoting positive peer and pupil-teacher relationships, and collaborative working between young people, families and schools.

In the next paper Ane Wilhelmsen-Langeland, Hanna Aardal, Vanja Hjemseth, Kristin Hannevik Fyhn, and Signe Hjelen Stige consider whether a 2-day Emotion Focused Family Therapy workshop strengthened parental self-efficacy, satisfaction and beliefs regarding their ability to help their children regulate emotions and reduce the children’s symptoms of behavioural or psychological difficulties. The results were generally very encouraging.

In the fourth paper Bree Wagner, Donna Cross, Emma Adams, Martyn Symons, Trevor Mazzucchelli, Rochelle Watkins, Edie Wright, Jane Latimer, Jonathan Carapetis, John Boulton, and James Fitzpatrick report on an evaluation of a teacher-delivered programme to improve the self-regulation of children attending Australian Aboriginal community primary schools. Again there are suggestions here of significant benefits for those working with young people who face significant challenges in their lives.

In paper five Nicole Dingwall makes the case for reconfiguring traditional classrooms. She does so through an exploration of reconfiguring a classroom space in a drama intervention, and outlines the affordances provided to young vulnerable people and the adults that they work with. Importantly she suggests that altering or defamiliarisng pedagogic space affords a potential relational change for both students and adults.

Marianne Coleman discusses the establishment of a whole school nurturing culture. She draws attention to the importance of leadership in changing the culture of a school. More specifically she emphasis the vital role played by the head and the Senior Leadership Team in bringing about a change in culture. This raises the very important question of whether such a change could survive the departure of senior leaders from the school.

In paper seven Silje Hukkelberg and Terje Ogden interrogate the notion of social competence. They report on an investigation into the concept among children with behavioural problems. Their results showed that parents reported higher levels of overall social competence among the girls compared to the boys, but this difference vanished about age 12. They discus these and other findings.

In the last paper in this richly international issue Marianna Heinonen, Paivi Marjo Elina Pihlaja consider what children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties think about themselves in early childhood.