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Groups of students were enrolled in a course that sought to produce a three-phase theoretical model over three semesters.

A design project to comprehensively address school violence was launched at a university in eastern Pennsylvania.

This article updates the recent and most critical finding of the project by illuminating specific implications of the importance of teacher training and the development toward competence in recognition of children who are emotionally and psychologically injured through proactive measures such as screening for emotional and psychological well-being.

Although the model has not been tested, screening to identify those in need of emotional support and training to support teachers is clear. Screening and training offer important opportunities to help learners build skills toward resilience to soften the effects of trauma.

A view of the “whole child” with regard to academic success could further foster social and emotional development.

Early intervention can prevent the onset of symptoms associated with posttraumatic stress and related disorders. This effort alone may significantly reduce the uncomfortable incidences and perhaps ultimate prevention of the violence that is perpetuated among children.

Preliminary research supports a continued conversation regarding effective tools to find children emotionally and psychologically at-risk, which allows teachers an opportunity for timely emotional and psychological interventions.

The purpose of this study aims to investigate the estimated symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTSD) among the residents of the violent line of control (LoC) of Azad Kashmir.

This study is a quantitative, exploratory study. The sample comprised 235 males and 225 females, aged 18–35years (N = 460). The traumatic appraisal questionnaire (TAQ) was applied to the determined sample and their responses were statistically analyzed.

It was identified through quantitative research that people living near the LoC had higher PTSD symptoms as compared to those living farther away. Moreover, females exhibited higher PTSD than males. Religious beliefs were identified as the most common coping mechanism used by residents of LoC.

Awareness sessions and seminars will be conducted with the help of mental health professionals in those areas with high estimated PTSD symptoms. This research will also help mental health professionals in Azad Kashmir to understand PTSD issues of LoC people.

This study focuses on estimating PTSD symptoms among residents living near the LoC in Azad Kashmir, an area characterized by violence and conflict. This research offers practical implications for mental health interventions, such as conducting awareness sessions and seminars with the help of mental health professionals. Furthermore, the study can enhance the understanding of PTSD among LoC residents, aiding mental health professionals in providing more effective support and care.

This paper aims to explore current inconsistencies within the theoretical framework of current posttraumatic growth (PTG) literature in support of the suggestion for an alternative novel phenomenon labelled “post-adversarial appreciation”.

This re-conceptualisation has developed from the findings of empirical research conducted by the authors and their understanding of PTG.

Significant inconsistencies persist across the PTG literature in relation to the parameters required for PTG to manifest. It appears that PTG or an alternative concept labelled adversarial growth does take place following adverse/traumatic events, but that a separate phenomenon may better explain positive improvements in perceived personal appreciation during such events. This phenomenon is theorised by the authors as “post-adversarial appreciation”.

This paper suggests the existence of a novel phenomenon that may address many of the inconsistencies and present within the current PTG literature. This highlights a significant need for further research within the field of trauma and adversity in relation to positive outcomes which may result from such negative experiences.

Public safety (communicators; e.g. 9-1-1, police, fire and ambulance call-takers and dispatchers), like many other public safety personnel (e.g. police, paramedics), (re)suffer operational stress injuries (OSIs) that are too often hidden and at a prevalence higher than the general population. Unfortunately, there are very little data for OSI rates in Canadian communicators. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the only pan-Canadian study focusing on organizational culture, and its potential influence on OSIs, within the communicator context.

The authors conducted a 179-item online survey of Canadian communicators comprising 17 validated screenings for occupational stress injuries and symptoms and four open-ended questions relating to their agency's organizational culture. The authors thematically analysed participants' open-ended responses and their screening scores.

A semi-grounded thematic approach revealed that managers and supervisors were significant contributors to negative perceptions (n = 165) of organizational culture, potentially resulting in or worsening existing OSIs. Specifically, leadership was viewed as ineffective, inconsistent, unsupportive, abusive and toxic, with limited understanding of communicator roles. Communicators described feeling devalued, particularly when leaders fail to recognize communicator OSIs, which can perpetuate stigma. Conversely, positive leaders (n = 24) were described as supportive, communicative and encouraging.

The findings suggest that while leadership behaviours are a key factor in employee well-being, it varies considerably across agencies, impacting treatment-seeking behaviours. The authors’ new understandings of leaders' roles in OSIs may help reduce the frequency and severity of communicator OSIs, helping ensure that emergency services are delivered to Canadians.

In a world teeming with concurrent processes and associated chaos, organizational working procedures have adapted to new trends; employees must keep up with everything while maintaining their mental health. Spirituality lends a person's life significance. Spirituality in the workplace can both physically and psychologically engage employees. Spirituality in the workplace is reflected in the organizational culture, which is founded on fundamental values such as trust, honesty, appreciation, innovation, care, respect, and loyalty. Workplace spirituality encompasses the pursuit of one's ultimate purpose in life, the development of a solid connection to colleagues and other people associated with work, and the consistency or alignment between one's fundamental beliefs and the organization's values. To have a competitive advantage and attract the best personnel, an organization's working environment must be based on strong ethical and spiritual values such as compassion, integrity, respect, harmony, trust, teamwork, and forgiveness, among others.

Work-life challenges experienced by employees navigating pregnancy, maternity, and parenting young children are well documented in the literature. Correspondingly, work-life balance policies and provisions aimed at supporting affected staff are well established in many modern organizations. Within this agenda however, complications within maternity journeys, and specifically the intersection with mental health has been neglected. In this chapter, we consider the work-life issues associated with perinatal (pregnancy and post-birth) mental illness. After introducing perinatal mental illness, and its impact on individuals and families, we consider the two-way relationship between illness and work: how employment factors influence the development of perinatal mental illness and recovery trajectories, with implications for family life; and how such illnesses impact work and employment. We offer key insights from our empirical research on this topic in the context of UK policing, highlighting challenges linked to the nature of police work and organization culture, and issues that are more broadly applicable to how maternity and mental illness are treated in the workplace. The chapter offers recommendations for people management practice aimed at reducing or mitigating occupational factors that exacerbate illness and maximizing those facilitating recovery in the perinatal period and beyond, thus advancing work-life inclusion.

This underscores individual and social implications for how mental disorders and mental well-being are constructed, conceived of and treated. Further, this paper aims to examine positive psychology’s role in supporting the advancement of a broader systemic and contextual approach to mental health. With that aim, this paper connects data on mental health and well-being with peace studies to describe the systems of value and social ecologies underpinning mental disorders, using public happiness/Felicitas Publica as a possible framework to enhance public mental health while intervening at the local level (Bruni and Zamagni, 2007; Marujo and Neto, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021; Marujo et al., 2019).

Theoretical foundations and data on positive peace and mental well-being are described with the intention to propose a systemic, contextual, relational, communitarian, economic and sociopolitical perspective of well-being that goes beyond individual bodies and/or brains and, instead, views mental disorder and mental health as social currency (Beck, 2020).

The interventions using dialogic, conversational and community approaches are a possible path to promote peace, mental health and public happiness.

Examining the interplay between the fields of positive psychology, mental health and cultures of peace, this work contributes to the broadening of research and subsequent intervention topics through transdisciplinary approaches while reinforcing the role of systemic and social determinants and complementing the prevalent medical model and intraindividual perspective of mental health and well-being.

Adopting positive psychology to address mental health through public happiness concepts and interventions opens opportunities to respond to the ebb and flow of social challenges and life-giving opportunities. Therefore, the paper intends to articulate actor-related, relational, structural and cultural dimensions while moving away from discrete technocratic and individual models and pays attention to the way their implementations are aligned with both individual and social needs.

The work offers an inclusive, equalitarian, politically sensitive approach to positive mental health and positive psychology, bringing forward a structural transformation and human rights-based approach perspective while rethinking the type of social and political solutions to mental health issues.

Creating a critically constructive debate vis-à-vis the fluidity and complexity of the social world, the paper examines mental health and positive psychology simultaneously from a “hardware” (institutions, infrastructures, services, systems, etc.) and a “software” (i.e. individuals and community/societal relations).

This study aims to determine the association between prison circumstances, perceived family support and sleep quality among male inmates at the Ibara prison, Ogun State.

It was a cross-sectional study of 300 male inmates interviewed with socio-demographic proforma and Pittsburgh sleep quality index.

While all respondents described the prison as being overcrowded, half of them used inappropriate sleeping materials daily and 41.4% decried a very noisy environment at night. Twenty-seven percent of the respondents described poor family support while 47.3% experienced poor sleep quality. Though nature of sleeping material and self-awareness of sleep problem were associated with poor sleep quality, no predictor of the latter was identified.

The study was conducted among males only because of the relative dominance of the male gender in the prison population. This makes analysis of gender difference impossible. Furthermore, sleep studies may be preferred over reports by some sleep experts.

Findings from this study may culminate in taking steps to improve the Nigerian prison conditions as well as the prisoner’s welfare.

Developing support group for relatives of inmates may be a focus of social intervention for these inmates. Also, inmates with good sleep quality are likely to partake effectively in the prison reformation programmes and may not self-medicate with sedatives.

This study provides a scholarly documentation of the state of Nigerian prisons; inmates’ perception of family support; prevalence and correlates of poor sleep quality among a group of male inmates.

This study aims to develop and test multivariable psychosocial prediction models of perceived post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) symptoms development among trauma-exposed Ukrainian adults (n = 761) after 1.5 years of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

This research was designed as a survey in line with the methodology of “Transparent reporting of a multivariable prediction model for individual prognosis or diagnosis” checklist. The survey included a questionnaire on sociodemographic characteristics and specifics of trauma exposure, as well as validated self-reported inventories: The International Trauma Questionnaire, Acceptance and Action Questionnaire – version 2, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale-10 and the Modified BBC Subjective Well-being Scale.

Regression analysis revealed different prediction models for PTSD and CPTSD symptoms, explaining 18.4% and 41.4% of their variance with five and eight predictors, respectively. Four variables were similar in predicting PTSD and CPTSD: war-relatedness of trauma, living with a friend, perceived physical health and regret for the past. War-relatedness of trauma the respondents were exposed to was among the strongest predictors for PTSD and CPTSD severity. However, living with a friend was almost equally strong in mitigating these mental consequences. Regret for past and lowly rated physical health were assessed as relatively weaker but statistically significant predictors in this study.

Upon the original theoretical framework, two psychosocial prediction models were developed for PTSD and CPTSD symptoms in a non-clinical sample of trauma-exposed Ukrainian adults.

In response to a critical need for uniform school crisis preparedness and response efforts across districts, the National Association of School Psychologists developed PREPaRE, a model and training curriculum aimed to equip school-based professionals to engage in comprehensive school crisis prevention and intervention practices. The PREPaRE acronym stands for: Prevent/Prepare for psychological trauma; Reaffirm physical health, security, and safety; Evaluate psychological trauma; Provide interventions (and) Respond to psychological needs; and Examine the effectiveness of prevention and intervention efforts. The model spans four crisis preparedness phases: Prevention, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. This chapter provides a detailed overview of the development and structure of the PREPaRE model's core components and the organizational framework of the Incident Command System. It delineates elements of the basic school crisis response plan, assessment of mental health risk following a crisis event, and the provision of crisis interventions within a multitiered system of support framework. Additionally, it summarizes ongoing effectiveness and implementation research used to evaluate and improve the model based on immediate training outcomes assessed through pre and postmeasures and training transfer to applied school contexts. Implications for research and public policy regarding school safety and crisis prevention and intervention, as well as the future of PREPaRE curriculum development, are discussed.