Welcome to this, the first issue of the International Journal of School and Educational Psychology (IJSEP) for 2021. As the official journal of the International School Psychology Association (ISPA), IJSEP aims to bring you, the reader, a wide range of high-quality research pertaining to a variety of topics relevant to school/educational psychologists around the globe. As before, we collate in this issue papers from scholars in Europe, Canada, the United Kingdom and North America.
Bartolo et al. (Citation2021) explored an ecosystems model for early childhood education, particularly aimed at remedying the effects of exclusion on young minds. As in Europe, dealing with migrant and immigrant children poses a troubling situation, particularly for elementary students’ behavioral and social adjustment (Tardif-Grenier et al., Citation2021). Moffa et al. (Citation2021) further explored the diverse school experiences of elementary/primary school children reporting on the cross-cultural validity of the “Me and My School Questionnaire” for investigating children’s mental health. On the other hand, as Finish and Estonian children grow and explore their own social, emotional and behavioral strengths, they seem to cope more efficiently with difficulties of early adolescence (Kyttälä et al., Citation2021). The next two papers deal with the factor structure of a “50-item self-report survey designed to measure engagement in five bullying roles” (Jenkins & Canivez, Citation2021, p. 57), and with the construct validity of the Italian version of the WISC-IV (Kush & Canivez, Citation2021). The final two papers move to explore other school stakeholders and post-secondary school issues. Parker and Hanson (Citation2021, p. 98) observed the religious beliefs of school stakeholders concluding that one cannot “just leave [your] religious beliefs at home” when entering the school context, while Yang (Citation2021) explored students’ resistance in the process of multicultural education.
All of these papers followed a rigorous process of peer review and editing, attesting to the high standards of research and practice evident in school and educational psychology around the world. In this first issue of 2021, a big thank you to the Associate Editors. Editorial Board members and ad hoc reviewers for their continued support contributing their voluntary services to the IJSEP and by extension to ISPA in order to make possible the excellent selection of papers in this issue. Wishing all our readers and contributors a healthy and thriving 2021 as we continue to battle the global pandemic and its effects on our children and the school/educational psychologists around the world dealing with the aftermath of school closures and losses. May you continue to bring support to all in need and may you also receive support from the ISPA network in your work and research.
References
- Bartolo, P. A., Kyriazopoulou, M., Björck-Åkesson, E., & Giné, C. (2021). An adapted ecosystem model for inclusive early childhood education: A qualitative cross European study. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 5–17.
- Jenkins, L. N., & Canivez, G. L. (2021). Hierarchical factor structure of the bullying participant behavior questionnaire with a middle school sample. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 57–74.
- Kush, J. C., & Canivez, G. L. (2021). Construct validity of the WISC–IV Italian edition: A bifactor examination of the standardization sample: Chi niente sa, di niente dubita. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 75–89.
- Kyttälä, M., Sinkkonen, H.-M., & Kõiv, K. (2021). Social, emotional, and behavioral strengths and difficulties among sixth grade students: Comparing student and teacher ratings in Finland and Estonia. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 44–56.
- Moffa, K., Wagle, R., Dowdy, E., Palikara, O., Castro, S., Dougherty, D., & Furlong, M. J. (2021). The me and my school questionnaire: Examining the cross-cultural validity of a children’s self-report mental health measure. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 33–43.
- Parker, J. S., & Hanson, P. (2021). School stakeholders do not “just leave their religious beliefs at home”: An exploratory study of school psychologists’ professional experiences. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 90–102.
- Tardif-Grenier, K., Olivier, E., & Archambault, I. (2021). Is there an immigrant paradox in Canadian elementary students’ behavioral and social adjustment? International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 18–32.
- Yang, Y. (2021). An exploratory value-cost approach in predicting college students’ achievement goals in multicultural education. International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 9(1), 103–115.