Canadian Journal of School Psychology

The present study examined trait perfectionism, automatic perfectionistic thoughts, rumination, worry, and depressive symptoms in early adolescents. A group of 81 elementary school students in Grades 7 and 8 completed 5 questionnaires: the Child-Adolescent Perfectionism Scale, the Perfectionism Cognitions Inventory, the Children’s Response Styles Questionnaire, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Children, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. The correlational results revealed associations between both trait perfectionism and perfectionistic automatic thoughts and the indices of depression and worry. Rumination was associated with perfectionistic automatic thoughts, self-oriented perfectionism, depression, and worry. Tests of mediation indicated that rumination mediated the association between perfectionism and depressive symptoms, thus highlighting the role of maladaptive forms of cognitive reactivity in perfectionism. The findings suggested that perfectionistic children and youth are at-risk due to cognitive vulnerabilities and they should benefit from programs focused jointly on reducing perfectionism, associated cognitive tendencies, and susceptibility to depression and worry.

Studies in positive psychology, including happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction, are reviewed. The preponderance of the research literature on the promotion of positive psychology tends to focus on broad social competences. However, there is an emerging body of evidence that supports employing specific techniques that are more amenable to school-based practice, can also promote happiness and life satisfaction in children and adolescents. An exploratory study conducted by McCabe-Fitch (2009) is included that exemplified the use of the specific techniques of the Gratitude Letter and Three Good Things in Life.

The factor structure of the Learning Behaviors Scale (LBS) was examined with a sample of 393 randomly selected Canadian youths in a large western city. An identical four-factor structure was observed for the Canadian sample as was obtained in the standardization sample of U.S. youths and with another American sample. Principal axis exploratory factor analysis with equamax rotations produced factor structure coefficients that were very similar to those from the standardization sample, and factor invariance estimates corresponded to estimates from the standardization sample. Also, LBS raw scores from the Canadian sample did not meaningfully differ from the U.S. standardization sample raw scores.

The General Ability Index (GAI) and Cognitive Proficiency Index (CPI) are two index scores that can be calculated for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Fourth Canadian Edition ((WISC-IV^CDN). The GAI comprises the verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning subtests and reflects reasoning abilities. The CPI includes the working memory and processing-speed subtests that are more focused on the proficiency and efficiency of cognitive processing. This article presents GAI and CPI patterns observed in several small samples of referred children and includes three brief case examples of how the scores can provide another lens for analyzing children’s abilities with the WISC-IV^CDN.

In addition to teaching and service responsibilities, junior faculty members are required to be productive researchers. Despite the demand on junior faculty to produce published research, studies suggest that they often do not receive adequate assistance with their research endeavors. Mentoring is an effective form of support for junior faculty that can lead to gains in research productivity. Research productivity also has been found to increase as collaboration increases, particularly when the collaboration is outside of one’s institution. The School Psychology Research Collaboration Conference (SPRCC), which is funded by the Society for the Study of School Psychology (SSSP), has supported the research of junior faculty in the field of school psychology by fostering professional relationships among junior faculty and enhancing their research skills through mentoring from senior-level faculty—all from various academic institutions. Using content analysis as the primary method of investigation, this study examined SPRCC junior faculty/early-career participants’ anonymous responses to open-ended questions regarding the value of the SPRCC in general, the tools and strategies used to conduct the conference, and the potential of the SPRCC to impact their future research productivity. Outcomes of the analysis were used to inform recommendations for establishing other research collaboration events and networking opportunities as well as for improving the SPRCC.

The concept of school climate has been an important variable in research on quality of school life and student learning. One of the challenges in such a research effort is to develop instruments that could effectively and efficiently measure the construct. The purpose of the current study was to examine the factor structure and reliability of an abbreviated version of the Developmental Study Center’s School Climate Survey. Based on data from a comprehensive character education project implemented in an urban school district in 2007 (n = 5,914), 2008 (n = 5,874) and 2009 (n = 5,149), results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) revealed a seven-factor structure across 3 years, indicating a stable factor structure of the abbreviated form. The scales in the abbreviated form demonstrated similar reliability to those of the original form.