Background
Calls have been made to rethink the mental health support currently available for young people. This study aims to help re-focus and reduce the inaccessibility of mental health services by ...offering an adapted version of a theoretically-driven, evidence-based, guided psychosocial intervention known as ‘Groups 4 Health’ (G4H). To date, the G4H intervention has mainly been trialled in Australia, with promising positive effects on social connection, mental health and well-being. The present study examines the feasibility of running a randomised controlled trial when delivering the G4H intervention for young people in the UK.
Methods
The TOGETHER study is a feasibility randomised controlled trial of an adapted version of the G4H intervention. Participants are aged 16–25, currently experiencing mental health difficulties and recruited from mental health services. The target sample size is 30, with 15 in each trial arm. Participants are randomly allocated to either G4H plus treatment as usual, or treatment as usual alone. The primary outcomes of interest are the feasibility of recruitment, randomisation, data collection and retention to the study at 10 and 14 week follow up, as well as the acceptability, and accessibility of the study protocol and G4H intervention.
Discussion
The results of this study will indicate if further optimisation is required to improve the feasibility, acceptability and accessibility of the intervention and study protocol procedures as perceived by end users and practitioners. This offers a significant opportunity to support the local and national demand for accessible, innovative, and effective psychosocial youth mental health support.
Trial registration
ISRCTN registry (
ISRCTN12505807
). Registration date: 11/04/2022.
Being a member of a rejected group negatively affects well‐being but can also increase group identification, which can have positive effects on well‐being. However, this rejection‐identification ...model has never been investigated among the highly stigmatized group of ex‐prisoners. Furthermore, the potential buffering role of multiple group memberships has never been investigated within the rejection‐identification model. We conduct a novel investigation of a combined rejection‐identification and social cure model of group‐based rejection among ex‐prisoners. A survey of 199 ex‐prisoners found that experiencing group‐based rejection was associated with poorer well‐being and increased ex‐prisoner identification. However, identification as an ex‐prisoner magnified, rather than buffered, the relationship between rejection and reduced well‐being. Furthermore, the negative relationship between rejection and well‐being was particularly pronounced among ex‐prisoners with a higher number of group memberships. Ex‐prisoners with a greater number of group memberships experienced greater levels of rejection, suggesting group memberships increase their exposure to rejection. We therefore provide evidence of a boundary condition for the social cure properties of groups. Among members of strongly rejected social groups, multiple group memberships can be a social curse rather than social cure.
Populism has been a major political phenomenon in liberal democracies throughout the last decade. Focusing on economic distress as one of the basic triggers of populism, we proposed a model ...integrating individual‐level indices of economic distress and status‐based identity threat (i.e., frustration of identity motives) as predictors of populism. We conducted two survey studies operationalizing populism as an individual‐level thin ideology among members of the general French population (Study 1: N = 458; Study 2: N = 1,050). Structural equation models supported status‐based identity threat as a partial mediator in the links between indices of relative deprivation and populism (Study 1). Additional analyses revealed frustrated belonging (i.e., feelings of social exclusion) as the central identity motive in this pattern. Reproducing the same model with belonging frustration instead of global‐identity motive frustration gave similar results (Studies 1 and 2). These findings provide the first evidence implicating identity threat—and belonging threat in particular—in the development of populist thin ideology and showed how identity motives are related to the economic distress pattern that predicts populism.
Background
Educational outcomes in the United Kingdom vary as a function of students' family background, with those of lower socioeconomic status (SES) and certain ethnic minority groups among the ...worst affected.
Aims
This pre‐registered study investigates: (i) whether knowledge about students' socioeconomic and ethnic background influences teachers' judgements about the quality of their work and potential for the future, and (ii) the role of teachers' beliefs—most notably about meritocracy—in their practices.
Sample
Our findings are based on the responses of 416 in‐service (88%) and trainee (12%) teachers who successfully passed several stringent exclusion criteria.
Methods
As part of a 2 × 2 independent measures design, teachers were randomly assigned to assess an identical piece of work ostensibly written by a student who varied by SES (higher vs. lower) and ethnicity (White British vs. Black Caribbean). Following this, they responded to several measures assessing their beliefs about education.
Results
Teachers judged students of lower SES to be inferior to students of higher SES across a range of indicators. By contrast, we found no evidence of racial bias in teachers' judgements, though potential reasons for this are discussed. Teachers who believed that schooling is meritocratic were significantly less likely to support equity‐enhancing teaching practices and initiatives.
Conclusions
Unconscious teacher biases and beliefs may be contributing to the relative underperformance of students from poorer backgrounds. These findings provide a mandate for educational institutions to help teachers reflect upon, and develop the skills required to mitigate potentially harmful biases.
Socioeconomic status and the structure of the self‐concept Easterbrook, Matthew J.; Kuppens, Toon; Manstead, Antony S. R.
British journal of social psychology,
January 2020, 2020-Jan, 2020-01-00, 20200101, Letnik:
59, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Individuals have a myriad of potential identities that they can use to define who they are, yet little research has investigated which types of identities people tend to prioritize within their ...self‐concepts, and how this may vary across individuals. We analyse data from two large UK social surveys (Ns = 16,966 and 44,903) that assessed the importance respondents attached to various identities within their self‐concepts, and find that social class plays a crucial role. Our results show that respondents attached high importance to identities that are indicative of their social class (income, education, and professional), and at least as much importance as they gave to identities more commonly studied by psychologists (such as ethnicity, nationality, or gender). Furthermore, respondents’ objective social class was one of the strongest predictors of the importance they attached to different types of identities: Higher class respondents placed greater importance on identities that are indicative of their social class, but less importance on identities based on basic demographics, chosen communities, or their sociocultural orientation. Our results suggest that social class plays an important role in structuring the self‐concept, and that researchers should pay more attention to the importance of social class to self and identity processes.
The vicious cycle of educational inequality may be maintained and perpetuated by teachers' lack of desire to work in socioeconomically deprived communities. Across two studies (Ntotal = 606), we ...experimentally investigated whether teachers' aversions to such settings could be mitigated by contact experiences with (a) people experiencing financial hardship and (b) children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Trainee teachers rated their levels of desire to work in schools that varied in terms of the socioeconomic backgrounds and diversity of their student populations. They also reported their contact experiences. Although, overall, teachers showed an aversion to working in a school that served a diverse and low‐income community compared to one with average student demographics, this effect was attenuated when teachers had more prior contact with both close others in financial hardship and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. These findings were replicated across both studies. Further analyses also revealed that the relation between contact and school desirability may, at least in part, be mediated by changes in teaching self‐efficacy. These findings demonstrate the potential value of teachers' contact with other groups as a method of reducing bias in education.
The Education Effect Easterbrook, Matthew J.; Kuppens, Toon; Manstead, Antony S. R.
Social indicators research,
04/2016, Letnik:
126, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Level of education is a predictor of a range of important outcomes, such as political interest and cynicism, social trust, health, well-being, and intergroup attitudes. We address a gap in the ...literature by analyzing the strength and stability of the education effect associated with this diverse range of outcomes across three surveys covering the period 1986–2011, including novel latent growth analyses of the stability of the education effect within the same individuals over time. Our analyses of the British Social Attitudes Survey, British Household Panel Survey, and International Social Survey Programme indicated that the education effect was robust across these outcomes and relatively stable over time, with higher education levels being associated with higher trust and political interest, better health and well-being, and with less political cynicism and less negative intergroup attitudes. The education effect was strongest when associated with political outcomes and attitudes towards immigrants, whereas it was weakest when associated with health and well-being. Most of the education effect appears to be due to the beneficial consequences of having a university education. Our results demonstrate that this beneficial education effect is also manifested in within-individual changes, with the education effect tending to become stronger as individuals age.
Self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts Easterbrook, Matthew J.; Harris, Peter R.; Sherman, David K.
Journal of social issues,
September 2021, 2021-09-00, 20210901, Letnik:
77, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Self‐affirmation, operationalized as value‐affirmation interventions, can have long‐term beneficial effects on the academic performance and trajectories of members of negatively stereotyped groups, ...thus reducing achievement gaps. Yet, there is significant heterogeneity in the effectiveness of value affirmations, and we do not yet have a clear understanding of why. In this introduction to the special issue, we review the literature on self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts, providing overviews of the heterogeneity in the effectiveness of affirmation interventions, the methods of implementation, potential moderators, and underling processes. We identify several questions that are important for researchers to address, the answers to which would progress the field towards being able to more confidently implement value‐affirmations in contexts in which, and/or for groups for whom, they are most likely to produce benefits. We then introduce the articles included in this special issue, which showcase several of the latest theoretical and empirical advances to self‐affirmation theory in educational contexts.
Income inequality is growing in many parts of the world and, for the poorest children in a society, is associated with multiple, negative, developmental outcomes. This review of the research ...literature considers how childrens' and adolescents' understanding of economic inequality changes with age. It highlights shifts in conceptual understanding (from ‘having and not having’, to social structural and moral explanations), moral reasoning and the impact of the agents of socialization from parents to the media and cultural norms and discourses. It also examines how social processes affect judgements and the importance of an emerging sense of self in relation to questions of economic inequality. Finally, the review covers methodological considerations and suggests pathways for future research.
Some groups of students—typically those who have suffered because of historical inequality in society—disproportionately experience psychological barriers to educational success. These psychological ...barriers—feelings of threat to their social identity and the sense that their identity is incompatible with educational success—make substantial contributions to inequalities in educational outcomes between groups, even beyond economic, historical, and structural inequalities. A range of wise psychological interventions can help remove these barriers by targeting students’ subjective interpretation of their local educational context. In this review, we outline the Identities in Context model of educational inequalities, which proposes that interactions between students’ social identities and features of the local educational context—expectations about a group's academic performance, a group's representation in positions associated with academic success, and a group's orientation towards education—can trigger social identity threat and identity incompatibility in ways that vary considerably across contexts. We present an implementation process, based on the Identities in Context model, that academic researchers, policymakers, and practitioners can follow to help them choose and tailor wise interventions that are effective in reducing educational inequalities in their local context. Throughout the review, we make policy recommendations regarding how educational practices can be altered to help remove psychological barriers for underperforming groups of students and so reduce educational inequalities.
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