We read the focal article by Britt, Shen, Sinclair, Grossman, and Klieger (2016) with special interest. About 10 years ago, we were asked to write a chapter on hardiness (Beehr & Bowling, 2005), and in doing so we had many observations about hardiness that were similar to Britt et al.’s observations about resilience. Our chapter was most closely aligned with the “capacity” concept of resilience, but we think that both the “capacity” approach and the “demonstration” approach to resilience have merit.

Based on research into adult social support and the ecological model of development, we sought to redefine and establish the levels and nature of support provided to Year 7 (n = 52), 9 (n = 52) and Year 11 (n = 33) adolescents over a period of 3 months. A questionnaire to identify who provided support to adolescents was developed to measure instrumental, informational and emotional support, and add siblings to the primary support network. Factor analysis confirmed the expected four-factor model of support, with parents, teachers, siblings and friends providing different levels and priorities of support. Results indicated high levels of internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Trends in the amount of social support generally showed a decrease from Time 1 to Time 2, significantly so from parents and teachers. Females indicated they received significantly more support from friends in comparison with males, regardless of year level. Year 7 students indicated significantly higher support from parents and teachers. Importantly, this study showed the general decline of social support from early to late adolescence, and the relative consistency of social support for male and female adolescents. The different types of supports provided to the individuals in the adolescents’ social network are discussed.

Clients undergo change as a function of engaging in a therapeutic experience. To date, little research into the residual effects of therapy have been completed using client-centred therapy. Some therapies provide didactic experiences to gain and practise skills and understandings so they can be recalled after the conclusion of therapy. Other therapies preclude such interventions and instead emphasise the insights of the client and the transformative therapeutic alliance to facilitate change. This research is an investigation of the possibility that client-centred therapy provides clients with experiences to allow insight into, and understanding of processes to optimally facilitate change through therapy. The aims of the research were to establish: whether factors known to enhance change in therapy increased for clients from the beginning to the end of therapy; whether the clinical group (n = 28; intervention) scores differed from a nonclinical group at both time points (n = 22; control); and establish whether gender differences were present. Analyses showed that nonclinical respondents’ scores at Times 1 and 2 were consistently higher on all factors compared with clinical respondents. The findings indicated that scores did not vary significantly between Time 1 and 2 for either the clinical or the nonclinical groups of respondents. The state/trait-like characteristics of the factors are discussed in reference to their application in therapeutic and applied settings.

This study investigated family functioning, family stage and eating disorder risk. A sample of 140 females (aged 18–59) completed a family functioning questionnaire (ICPS) and the Eating Disorder Risk scale (EDI-3). Consistent with previous research, cluster analysis identified two profiles of family functioning: an authoritative style (high intimacy and high democratic parenting, with low conflict) and an authoritarian cluster (elevated conflict scores and significantly lower intimacy and democratic parenting). The second independent variable of family stage comprised two groups: females living in their family of origin and those living in their family of choice. The ANOVA showed no interaction involving family functioning cluster and family stage. A main effect showed that participants in the authoritarian cluster experienced significantly more drive for thinness, bulimic symptoms, body dissatisfaction and eating disorder risk. There was no difference in eating disorder risk between females living at home or those in the family of choice. The findings have implications for therapists in demonstrating that independence from the family of origin does not prompt natural recovery from eating disorder tendencies. The findings provide some further evidence of the association between specific elements of family functioning (intimacy, conflict and democratic parenting) with eating disorder risk.

The aims of this research were to develop and validate a Brief Attachment Adjective Checklist (BAAC) to represent the four category model of attachment, compare it with a current measure of attachment, and use both to predict relationship satisfaction. A 32-item operationalisation of a hypothesised four-category model was analysed using a principal component analysis. Results of Study 1 (n = 174) indicated the items of the four-category model reflected good factor structure. Comparison with the four-paragraph Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) showed low correlation between the two operationalisations, suggesting that they were measuring different aspects of attachment. Analyses showed that the BAAC was a weak but better predictor of relationship satisfaction than the RQ. A confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 (n = 131) refined the structure of the BAAC. The pattern of correlations showing relative independence of the BAAC and the RQ in Study 1 was also shown in Study 2. The frequency of respondents in dominant attachment categories of the RQ was consistent with previous research but the frequency of respondents in dominant attachment categories differed for RQ compared with the BAAC. The replication of the prediction of relationship satisfaction in Study 2 showed that both measures were weak predictors of relationship satisfaction but the BAAC was a better predictor than the RQ.

This research is a summary of the published research interests of Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologists over the past 25 years. The terms used in the title and keywords describing research published in The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist (AEDP) over the past 25 years were analysed. In total, 105 individual words or terms were derived from 233 articles published in the AEDP. These words and terms were used 707 times as title words and 820 times as keywords to describe the research of the journal. The most frequent individual title words were children (n = 70), adolescents (n = 44), assessment (n = 29), development/developmental (n = 28), and disability (n = 27). The reduction of these title words and keywords resulted in six categories: Stages of Development, Relating and Roles, Educational and Vocational, Presenting Problems—Clinical, Presenting Problems—General, and Methods and Practice. Analyses of the frequency of the title words and keywords led to the conclusion that many of the words and the subsequent categories were exclusively Educational and Developmental in definition, with a large proportion of the content of the journal also shared with other specialisations and areas of psychology. Finally, the title words and keywords were subdivided into 5-year periods and small, significant effects were found between the five time periods for some categories of keywords and terms. The differences were very weak and non-systematic, trends indicating the relative consistency of the contents of the journal over time.

The communication style of adolescents was assessed using the factors of the Focus of Communication Questionnaire (FOCQ), gender and year level. The FOCQ has six factors that individuals focus on during conflict including success, task, other-person, concession, withdrawing, and confusing. Data from the 460 adolescent participants showed that there were interaction effects involving success and other-person focused communication. Younger students were lower on concession, task, and confusion focused communication. Females were more withdrawing, concession and less confusion focused than males. The magnitude of the effect sizes resulting from the gender and year level analyses was small. Profile analysis of the six communication factors resulted in two clusters similar to those from previous research. The third cluster comprised a group of students low in all six communication factors. The discussion addresses the relevance of the findings and profile analysis in school settings.

Children and adolescents suffering from an eating disorder will typically experience the adverse impact of such a disorder upon their education. These sufferers are often forced to defer their education whilst seeking treatment. However, there are a number of signs educators and school psychologists can look for to identify a student who may be struggling with an eating disorder, so as early intervention can be made to assist these students in the best possible manner. Based on a summary of recent research and literature, this article explains how eating disorders may be manifested in a school setting, how educators and school psychologists can help a student suffering from an eating disorder, and how schools can intervene to prevent eating disorders in students. Possible directions for future research in this area will also be explored.