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This article put forward two claims. First, it argues that, historically, the rationale for education has shifted from religious and national indoctrination to, in the more recent neoliberal period, human capital and the related notion of individual empowerment. Second, the article argues that the recent shift toward individual empowerment is reflected in international organizations’ (IOs) changing emphases in education. IOs’ educational agenda has undergone various changes since their early work in the 1960s: From the structural expansion of national education systems to the measurement of individual educational achievement through a focus on competencies and, most recently, individual psychosocial development.

Based on a content analysis of 60 documents from 38 IOs involved in international education networks between 1990 and 2015, this work identified an expanding field of IOs directing attention to the mental capabilities of a learner. The proliferated model of an individual actorhood reflected in these novel assessment designs will be presented and embedded in wider discussions about the cultural construction of the individual in contemporary world polity.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in this special issue and outline the essential features of the resilient school approach, and the child‐focused approach of Noreen Wetton in her work in health education on understanding children and young people.

The paper shows distillation of the key principles used in the two complementary approaches.

The paper finds that resilience is a life event phenomenon that buffers against circumstances that normally overwhelm a person's coping capacity. It is linked with “coherence”, or the ability to handle stress‐related problems, “connectedness” and the ecological model encompassing a lifespan approach, within key settings that influence the individual's psychosocial development. Preventive population health practices that address the strengthening of human, social and organisational capital may well promise greater success in fostering population health, and particularly resilience, than traditional psycho‐educational strategies. These become increasingly effective as the whole school approach is implemented as young people engage and participate fully in research and decision making – key principles of Noreen Wetton's approach to health promotion.

The paper shows the need to focus on seeking the positive in any educational opportunity, to listen to young people and find out what they believe and feel, and to address health problems through attempting to strengthen people's capacity to cope rather than just shielding them from adversity.

The paper, in showing this is the first time these two strands have been brought together in this way, has a wide value widely across health education and health promotion.

Family events have unique significance on children as well as long-lasting impacts on them during their adulthood. A review of conceptual and theoretical literature on the subject was conducted to identify underlying trends and best practices in engaging children in the events industry. Societies are in transition from industrialised societies into risk societies and are increasingly becoming eco-socialised. Family events are integral towards developing inclusive and integrated societies and in realising Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16). Childhood is always eco-socialised, i.e. socially, economically and ecologically integrated with other forms of life. To the extent that childhood nostalgia forms the basis for future sustainable events and tourism choices. Family events are, therefore, increasingly becoming fundamental towards developing sustainability discourse. This viewpoint chapter provides conceptual and theoretical perspective on the roles and impacts of childhood research in sustainability discourse.

This paper explores the similarities and differences in privacy attitudes, trust and risk beliefs between younger and older adults on social networking sites. The objective of the article is to ascertain whether any notable differences exist between younger (18–25 years old) and older (55+ years old) adults in how trust and risk are influenced by privacy concerns upon personal information disclosure on social media.

A Likert scale instrument validated in previous research was employed to gather the responses of 148 younger and 152 older adults. The scale was distributed through Amazon Mechanical Turk. Data were analyzed through partial least squares structural equation modeling.

No significant differences were found between younger and older adults in how social media privacy concerns related to trust and risk beliefs. Two privacy concern dimensions were found to have a significant influence on perceptions of risk for both populations: collection and control. Predictability and a sense of control are proposed as two conceptual approaches that can explain these findings.

This article is the first one to explore age differences in privacy concerns, trust and risk on social media employing conceptual developments and an instrument specifically tailored to the social media environment. Based on the findings, several strategies are suggested to keep privacy concerns on social media at a minimum, reduce risk perceptions and increase users' trust.

The aim of this study was to provide a pilot evaluation of novel, brief formulation development workshops with direct care staff supporting people with intellectual disabilities who display significant psychosocial difficulties. A series of workshops were designed and delivered to a staff team supporting an individual who had been referred to specialist intellectual disabilities health services. The workshops used a psychosocial framework to facilitate development with care staff of a case formulation for the individual they were supporting. Following the workshops, there were decreases in problematic behaviours displayed by the individual and in the staff team's perception of the severity of these behaviours. The staff team felt that the workshops had had a beneficial impact on their practice. The pilot indicated that the workshops were feasible, positively received and associated with changes in the psychosocial difficulties displayed by the individuals staff were supporting.

This evaluative research represents the first report in the literature to date in which a group mentoring programme has been evaluated using a quasi‐experimental research design. Results indicated that the programme was effective in one domain of professionalism, the main outcome variable; and that career‐development outcomes were significantly higher in programme participants. In addition to the previously established functions of mentoring (career and psychosocial development), the research suggests that the conceptual basis of mentoring should be expanded to include the function of professionalism. This has implications for both the practical aspects of mentoring programme development and for future evaluative research. Data were collected by means of pre‐ and post‐test questionnaires and analysed by multiple regression analysis.

Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how adolescent arrest and correctional confinement impact psychosocial development during the transition to adulthood.

The research uses a US-based sample of 12,100 youth in junior and high school and again in early adulthood. Factor analyses determine measurement of psychosocial maturity (PSM) and subsequently compare baseline and subsequent psychosocial development in a multivariate framework for males and females.

Findings show that net of socio-demographic and delinquency-related controls, all three groups have similar baseline psychosocial measures pre-confinement but by early adulthood (ages 18–25) there are significant differences between the two justice-involved groups for multiple measure of psychosocial well-being, net of any differences at baseline. Differences are exacerbated for females.

Results suggest the need for juvenile correctional facilities to incorporate programming that allows juveniles to build psychosocial skills through activities that mirror typical adolescent responsibilities, behaviors and tasks.

The authors compare PSM development for three groups of adolescents: non-justice-involved youth, youth who were arrested but not confined before age 18 (arrested non-confined), and delinquent youth who served time in out-of-home correctional placement before age 18 (confined) to compare development and changes in psychosocial development over time. Further, the authors examine the interaction of gender and confinement to explore if the context of confinement disrupts PSM development differently for females.

Due to the “European Union Framework Directive on Safety and Health at work” (Directive 89/391/EEC, 1989), every employer is obliged to avoid psychosocial hazards when designing work. Little is known empirically about the barriers that workplace actors experience while developing and implementing OSH measures that prevent psychosocial hazards. The purpose of this paper is to explore barriers, causes and attempts to overcome them and discusses them with reference to relevant theoretical concepts and models that help to explain how these barriers hinder the development and implementation of OSH measures.

Semi-structured interviews with workplace actors in charge of psychosocial risk assessment (PRA) were conducted in 41 business cases, and transcripts were analysed using a thematic analysis approach. Barriers, causes and attempts to overcome them were extracted inductively and discussed with reference to relevant theories and explanatory models.

The complex nature of psychosocial risks, hindering general beliefs, lack of a perceived scope for risk avoidance, lack of assumptions of responsibility among players on all hierarchical levels, discrepancies between formal responsibility and decision authority, and low reflexivity on processes of development and implementation of interventions were described as barriers. Causes and attempts to overcome these barriers were reflected upon by workplace actors.

Recommendations on the organisation of PRA will be given with respect to the reported results and relevant research in this field.

This qualitative study explores the barriers to developing and implementing OSH measures to eliminate psychosocial hazards, from the perspective of actors in charge of PRA, and why they might fail.