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This study aims to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore mental health in Australian construction apprentices from the perspective of key stakeholders in the apprenticeship model. In particular, this study explored how construction apprentices, Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, industry employers and mental health workers understood the construct of mental health, factors associated with the dimension of psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, and factors associated with the dimension of mental wellbeing.

This study used an exploratory qualitative research design. Data from 36 semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants comprised 19 Australian construction apprentices, 5 VET teachers, 7 industry employers and 5 mental health workers.

In total, 14 themes were generated from the data set. Participants across stakeholder groups reported a limited understanding about mental health. Participants cited a range of negative personal, workplace and industry factors associated with psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, but only reported a few factors associated with mental wellbeing.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore the mental health of Australian construction apprentices, and to explore the factors associated with both dimensions of this model from the perspective of key stakeholders in the Australian construction apprenticeship model.

This paper investigates the relationship between terrorism and firm financial performance in Nigeria. The country has become one of the riskiest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa due to the intensity of recent terror attacks. Also, there is a growing focus on the importance of firms, given firms' economic contribution towards growth, employment and economic and industrial transformation. However, no study has tried establishing a relationship between terrorism and firm financial performance. Therefore, providing empirical proof of this relationship is the primary purpose and motivation of this paper.

Data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD) were used for this study. The baseline analysis was estimated using the pooled ordinary least squares regression technique. For robustness checks, the fixed effects technique was used to control for heterogeneity across the authors' sample of firms and unobserved factors that are time-invariant, while the IV technique was employed to control for any potential endogeneity.

The results obtained from the regression analysis were robust to different econometric estimations and approaches. Terrorism was found to have a consistent and significant negative impact on firm financial performance. Furthermore, the marginal effect of terrorism on firm performance was more substantial when state-level terrorism data were used.

Studies often focus on the impact of political instability (which is a measure subjectively based on perception) on foreign direct investment or on the activities of multinational corporations. The authors' research is new in supplying evidence of the relationship between terrorism (an objective measure) and the financial performance of manufacturing firms in Nigeria. Methodologically, this study also employed spatially distributed incidents of terrorism within the country. This is because incidents of terrorism are often spatially distributed within a country (i.e. province or state). This will provide new evidence of the effects of within-country variations of terrorism on firm financial performance.