Ang, Rebecca P.

The main aim of this research study is to understand whether the effectiveness of a public service message in motivating one towards making appropriate changes to their social media use habits is influenced by the use of narrative or gender or a combination of both. Therefore, the 2 variables of this study are use of narrative and gender. A sample size of 160 young adults aged 21 years old and above participated in the study. This research study showed that narratives and gender in combination had an influence on whether the message had the potential to trigger change in the participants regarding their social media use habits. Specifically, female participants found narrative messages to be more persuasive in making appropriate changes to their social media use habits. However, the findings from this study showed that the manner in which messages are conceptualized and presented did not influence males to make appropriate changes to their social media use habits.

This study examines the influence of both student and teacher perception of the student-teacher relationship on student's attitude towards teachers and school. It also seeks to explore any gender differences in the perception of teacher-student relationship between male and female adolescents. A sample of 1,266 students (541 girls and 725 boys) from six different middle schools in Singapore participated in this study. Findings indicated that gender differences were observed for certain dimensions in the teacher-student relationship predicting their attitude towards teachers and school. Possible explanations for the obtained results were suggested and implications of the findings were also discussed.

The book covers topics including barriers to help-seeking, addressing children's mental health needs, and how to enhance mental health support for children and adolescents. It draws on examples from Singapore's education, health, family, social services and legal sectors in promoting children's mental health and wellbeing. Future directions in the field will be discussed including the importance of program evaluation, partnerships, and bringing interventions to scale. In order to fully realize the ultimate aim of sustaining a long-term positive and healthy mental state for our young, the book highlights how a well-coordinated national strategy for mental health and wellbeing can serve as a springboard for further growth to build a resilient and empathic society. An essential resource for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of school, clinical and counselling psychology, counselling, social work, education and related disciplines, this book will also interest clinicians or practitioners.

A rising global concern, adolescent aggression has been linked to adolescents’ mental health conditions, and vice versa. Although longitudinal relationships between the two have been studied, within-person associations between these variables, which are important for informing interventions, have not been adequately examined. To bridge that research gap, this study examined the within-person associations between aggression (i.e., reactive, proactive, and cyber aggression) and mental health problems (i.e., depressive and anxious symptoms), as informed by the frustration-aggression theory and the failure model. Three-wave longitudinal data were collected from a sample of Chinese adolescents (N = 1422; 50.9% girls; mean age = 13.56 years) at three time points, each separated by one-year intervals. The data were analyzed using a random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), revealing several within-person relationships. The presence of symptoms of depression and anxiety at T2 predicted increased cyber aggression at T3, and depressive symptoms at T2 also predicted an increase in reactive aggression at T3 (p < 0.1). In addition, proactive aggression at T2 predicted an increase in depressive symptoms at T3 (p < 0.1), and reactive aggression at T1 predicted a reduction in symptoms of anxiety at T2. All aggression- and mental health-related variables were significantly correlated at the between-person level. Moreover, the results of the multiple-group RI-CLPMs showed that gender influenced the relationships between proactive aggression and symptoms of depression and anxiety. The study’s results lend partial support to the notion of bidirectional relationships between adolescent aggressive behaviors and mental health conditions, as well as to the frustration-aggression theory and the failure model. Insights into the interactions between adolescents’ mental health problems and aggression can inform prevention and intervention strategies.

Bullying has emerged as a critical social issue in Singapore, with many children and adolescents experiencing or witnessing bullying in school or online. Particularly noteworthy is the rise of cyberbullying as a significant concern for young people, driven by extensive technology use. This has led to an increased risk of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration among young people. This chapter presents a comprehensive review of the prevalence and patterns of both forms of bullying, shedding light on the social-ecological factors that may contribute to these behaviors. The analysis draws from studies conducted with samples from Singapore. Additionally, the chapter explores the consequences of school bullying and cyberbullying, considering both victimization and perpetration. It also scrutinizes the anti-bullying interventions and programs implemented in Singapore. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications for practical applications and suggestions for future research in this area.

Cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms are major concerns for children and adolescents worldwide. Despite the increasing number of longitudinal studies of cyberbullying and mental health among this demographic, the robustness of the causal associations between cyberbullying victimization and the magnitude of mental health symptoms remains unclear. This meta-analysis investigated the longitudinal impact of cyberbullying victimization on mental health symptoms among children and adolescents. A systematic search identified primary studies published in English between January 2010 and June 2021, yielding a sample of 27 studies encompassing 13,497 children and adolescents aged 8 to 19 years old. The longitudinal association between cyberbullying victimization and mental health symptoms among children and adolescents was found to be weakly positive and consistent across time and age. Three significant moderators were identified: the effect of cyberbullying victimization on mental health was larger among older children, groups with a higher proportion of males, and in more recent publications. No evidence of publication bias was detected. This study adds to the existing body of research by providing a new perspective on the long-term effects of cyberbullying victimization on the mental health of children and adolescents’ mental health. Furthermore, it underscores the necessity of developing effective cyberbullying prevention programs, interventions, and legal regulations to comprehensively address this issue.

This research strived to find the effectiveness, also known as persuasiveness of messaging on the topic of social media comparison in relation to 2 key variables that are Gender (male/female) and framing (gain/loss). A zoom survey was conducted from a sample pool of 160 Singaporean undergraduates who are aged 21 years old and above. The results collected shows that effectiveness of messaging varies in relation to framing and gender to a notable degree. More specifically the perceived quality of the messaging varies among genders in relation to the type of framing. The result shows that males generally perceive the quality of either frame to be nearly the same while females generally perceive the quality loss frame messages more accurate than gain frame messages. Furthermore, males perceive gain frame messages as higher quality by a slight margin and females perceive loss frame messages as higher quality by a wide margin. Hence, these findings lead to a conclusion that the type of message framing impacts the perceived quality in terms of persuasiveness, notably among females.

Express stream students rank amongst the top in international benchmarking comparisons in TIMMS and PISA, but those from the Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams obtain lower-than-average scores comparable to students from developing countries. Although a differentiated program has been specially tailored to cater to their pace of learning, many still fail to perform because educators may not have adequately considered the circumstances under which they are willing to participate and learn. Substantial research indicates that besides academics, a range of social, psychological, interpersonal and emotional factors also contribute to educational performance and achievement. To gain perspective on the respective contribution of multiple factors and encapsulate the systemic influences at individual and contextual factors on the long-term academic and non-academic trajectories of these students, this study uses a student engagement framework to unravel the educational challenges facing Normal stream students. Student engagement refers to a student’s active involvement in a task or activity and it captures the gradual process by which they connect with or disconnect from school. This framework describes students’ feelings (affective), behaviours and thoughts (cognitive) about their school experiences, and is predominantly used to understand student problems associated with significant academic or discipline problems and eventual school dropout in research situated in western contexts.

Youth violence is a growing concern in Singapore. To address this complex social issue, we surveyed the psychology, social science, and criminology literature to identify a total of 11 intrinsic (familial, individual, school) and 2 extrinsic (peer) factors linked to youth violence, and also their interdependencies. We then developed a complex agent network model where each complex agent is represented by a complex factor network of the 13 factors along with youth violence, coupled to each other through the extrinsic factors to form a complex social network. We simulated the model using as initial conditions the results from a large-scale school-based survey of the factors and random social ties. We find factors in each complex agent evolving with time under the influences from other factors, and the social ties between agents evolving with time as a result of behavioral imitation between agents. We ran a sensitivity analysis on the model, to find that the model is most sensitive to the parameters linking (1) non-intact family, (2) delinquency in general, (3) school disengagement, (4) peer delinquency, and (5) friends in gang to gang involvement. We also ran a series of intervention scenario simulations, and our results show that it is critical to intervene early, and successful interventions work by tipping the balance between competing intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Mental health professionals and school counsellors can then apply this unique insight from the model to design more effective interventions.