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We introduce the pair of special issues of Applied Psycolinguistics (this issue, next issue) titled “Towards a just and equitable applied psycholinguistics.” This paper motivates the need for this project, details the editorial process, and provides a brief summary of each article appearing in the special issues.

Depression is highly recurrent, even following successful pharmacological and/or psychological intervention. We aimed to develop clinical prediction models to inform adults with recurrent depression choosing between antidepressant medication (ADM) maintenance or switching to mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Using previously published data ( N = 424), we constructed prognostic models using elastic-net regression that combined demographic, clinical, and psychological factors to predict relapse at 24 months under ADM or MBCT. Only the ADM model (discrimination performance: area under the curve [AUC] = .68) predicted relapse better than baseline depression severity (AUC = .54; one-tailed DeLong’s test: z = 2.8, p = .003). Individuals with the poorest ADM prognoses who switched to MBCT had better outcomes compared with individuals who maintained ADM (48% vs. 70% relapse, respectively; superior survival times, z = −2.7, p = .008). For individuals with moderate to good ADM prognoses, both treatments resulted in similar likelihood of relapse. If replicated, the results suggest that predictive modeling can inform clinical decision-making around relapse prevention in recurrent depression.

Peer reviewed: True, INTRODUCTION: Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent and impairing cluster of traits affecting 2%-5% of children. These children are at risk of negative health, social and educational outcomes and often experience severe difficulties at school, so effective psychosocial interventions are needed. There is mixed evidence for existing school-based interventions for ADHD, which are complex and resource-intensive, contradicting teachers' preferences for short, flexible strategies that suit a range of ADHD-related classroom-based problems. They are also poorly evaluated. In this study, a prototype intervention comprising a digital 'toolkit' of behavioural strategies will be tested and refined. We aim to refine the prototype so that its use is feasible and acceptable within school settings, and to establish whether a future definitive, appropriately powered, trial of effectiveness is feasible. This novel iterative study aims to pre-emptively address implementation and evaluation challenges that have hampered previous randomised controlled trials of non-pharmacological interventions. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A randomised iterative mixed-methods case-series design will be used. Schools will be randomised to the time (school term) they implement the toolkit. Eight primary schools and 16-32 children with impairing traits of ADHD will participate, along with school staff and parents. The toolkit will be refined after each term, or more frequently if needed. Small, theory-based and data driven changes hypothesised as relevant across school contexts will be made, as well as reactive changes addressing implementation barriers. Feasibility and acceptability will be assessed through quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses in relation to study continuation criteria, and ADHD symptoms and classroom functioning will be tracked and visually evaluated to assess whether there are early indications of toolkit utility. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been obtained. Results will be presented in journal articles, conferences and through varied forms of media to reach policymakers, stakeholders and the public.

Objectives Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (MBCT-D) has been shown to be effective at repairing positive affect deficits in depressed individuals, but the mechanism of action underpinning these changes has not been empirically examined. To address this issue, secondary analyses of two randomised controlled trials in individuals with residual depression were conducted. Method Study 1 was a cross-sectional mediation analysis of a trial reporting superior effects of MBCT-D to a waitlist control in bolstering momentary positive affect in individuals with residual depression symptoms (n = 130). Study 2 replicated this analysis in the subset of individuals with residual depression symptoms (n = 117) from a second, larger trial comparing MBCT-D to maintenance antidepressants (M-ADM) to prevent depressive relapse that also included a positive affect outcome. Results In Study 1, an increase in external sensory observing uniquely mediated the superiority of MBCT-D over the control in repairing momentary positive affect. Replicating these findings, in Study 2, MBCT-D was superior to M-ADM at repairing positive affect and this was cross-sectionally mediated by changes in external sensory observing. Conclusions These findings suggest that one way in which MBCT-D enhances positive affect in individuals with residual depression may be by training the capacity to attend to external sensory experience.

We provide an exhaustive review of studies in the relatively new domain of research on the influence of orthography on second language (L2) phonological acquisition. While language teachers have long recognized the importance of written input—in addition to spoken input—on learners’ development, until this century there was very little systematic research investigating the relationship between orthography and L2 phonological acquisition. Here, we review studies of the influence of written input on L2 phonological awareness, phoneme perception, the acquisition of phonological processes and syllable structure, and the pronunciation and recognition of words. We elaborate the variables that appear to moderate written input effects: (1) whether or not a novel phonological contrast is systematically represented by the L2 writing system (systematicity); (2) whether some or all of the L2 graphemes are familiar to learners from the L1 (familiarity); (3) for familiar graphemes, whether the native language (L1) and the L2 employ the same grapheme-phoneme correspondences (congruence); and (4) the ability of learners to perceive an auditory contrast that is systematically represented in writing (perceptibility). We conclude by calling for future research on the pedagogical implications of this body of work, which has thus far received very little attention by researchers.

Background Affective dysregulation is central to depression. However, emotion regulation (ER) tendencies in depression remain poorly understood. It is critical, therefore, to validate measures of habitual ER in clinical populations. The current study aimed to validate the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) in a sample of individuals with a history of recurrent depression who are currently in remission. Method The CERQ measures ER tendencies with 36 self-report items that are divided into nine subscales. Each subscale is purported to assess one of five adaptive and four maladaptive ER strategies. The CERQ was administered to 476 adults (mean age = 46.76 years; 75% female) that were currently in remission with a history of recurrent depression, who were recruited from primary care settings. We first investigated the CERQ's nine factor structure, internal consistency, convergent and criterion validity. Results The nine-factor structure did not fit the CERQ structure in a sample of individuals with recurrent depression and convergent validity was poor. Instead, a five-factor structure fit the data best and showed acceptable convergent and criterion validity. Limitations The generalisability of the findings may be limited due to relative lack of diversity in terms of gender and ethnicity of the sample. Conclusion These results suggest that the taxonomic structure of the CERQ does not fit emotion regulation patterns in adults with a history of depression. These findings highlight the importance of validating measures in clinical samples.

Background: Poor mental health reduces children’s ability to function at school, which in turn may undermine their mental health. The provision of school-based counselling aims to help schools to support their pupil’s mental health. Most work on the types of difficulties brought to school counsellors has focused on secondary school pupils (aged 11 years or over) and to our knowledge, this is the first study of presenting issues in younger children. Method: Data were systematically collected using a list of 21 potential presenting issues during assessment and formulation of 8,893 children referred for counselling in 291 UK primary schools over 3 years. We explored the number, severity and types of presenting issues recorded by counsellors in the whole sample by gender. Results: The children assessed by counsellors had higher levels of known correlates for poor mental health than their peers in the same schools. Most children had multiple presenting issues, while 55% of children had at least one severe presenting issue. The commonest presenting issues were generalised anxiety, low self-esteem, family tensions and mood swings. Girls were more likely to present with all types of anxiety and family tensions, while attentional problems and mood swings were commoner among boys. Conclusions: Children referred for counselling in primary schools often present with multiple difficulties, which are often severe. This indicates the need for systematic and detailed assessment, adequate training and supervision and good links with external agencies.

While a growing body of research investigates the influence of orthographic input on the acquisition of second language (L2) segmental contrasts, few studies have examined its influence on the acquisition of L2 phonological processes. Hayes-Harb, Brown, and Smith (2018) showed that exposure to words’ written forms caused native English speakers to misremember the voicing of final obstruents in German-like words exemplifying voicing neutralization. However, they did not examine participants’ acquisition of the final devoicing process. To address this gap, we conducted two experiments wherein native English speakers (assigned to Orthography or No Orthography groups) learned German-like words in suffixed and unsuffixed forms, and later completed a picture naming test. Experiment 1 investigated learners’ knowledge of the surface voicing of obstruents in both final and nonfinal position, and revealed that while all participants produced underlyingly voiced obstruents as voiceless more often in final than nonfinal position, the difference was only significant for No Orthography participants. Experiment 2 investigated participants’ ability to apply the devoicing process to new words, and provided no evidence of generalization. Together these findings shed light on the acquisition of final devoicing by naïve adult learners, as well as the influence of orthographic input in the acquisition of a phonological alternation.

Funder: National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research Programme (project number 10/3006/07), Funder: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care South West Peninsula, BACKGROUND: The Incredible Years® (IY) Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme may reduce disruptive behaviour in the classroom and improve child and teacher mental health; however, few studies have considered how acceptable TCM is to teachers or what facilitators and barriers there are to its implementation. AIMS: In this paper we examine the acceptability of the full 6-day TCM programme and teachers' perceived barriers and facilitators to implementation in the English (UK) primary school context. SAMPLE: Forty-four English (UK) primary school teachers who attended the TCM programme as part of the STARS trial. METHODS: We completed focus groups and telephone interviews with participating teachers 2 months after they completed the TCM programme. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data, and a framework approach was applied to organize and summarize themes. RESULTS: Teachers liked the structure of the course, the peer group learning environment, delivery methods, and the opportunity to reflect outside the classroom on their practice. They reported that the video clips used lacked cultural relevance and highlighted the importance of group leadership style. Perceived facilitators to implementation included an understanding of the theory underpinning TCM and adaptability of the TCM strategies. Barriers included perceived gaps in the course content in relation to challenging behaviour, applying strategies with older children and the school context within which teachers were working. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest high levels of acceptability to TCM overall, but also highlight the need for a whole school approach to combat potential barriers to implementation.

Course-based replication studies facilitate broad student participation in science, allowing early-career researchers a direct and fast route to impactful research questions and high-quality methods and analyses. They also provide students opportunities for exciting hands-on experience engaging with contemporary research questions as both theorists and experimentalists. However, reproducibility requires thoughtful attention to generalizability, and new scholars must be taught to critically consider study motivations, assumptions and goals. Teaching reproducibility in this way promotes public trust in science as well as productive skepticism. We discuss a reproducibility-focused undergraduate course where the goal is to provide a meaningful, authentic, and responsible research experience for students. While a heavy emphasis on replication can lead to an uncritical reproduction of harmful science, the present course emphasizes a more inclusive approach to knowledge production, where research skills development is inseparable from education on responsible conduct of research, social justice, and open science values and practices. We cover topics including: selecting a study for replication, intentional development of students’ collaboration skills, finding a balance between replication and extension, students’ reflexivity practice and positionality, human participants considerations, the responsible dissemination of students’ research, course learning outcomes and assessment, and research mentoring “at scale.”

The Incredible YearsIn this paper we examine the acceptability of the full 6-day TCM programme and teachers' perceived barriers and facilitators to implementation in the English (UK) primary school context.Forty-four English (UK) primary school teachers who attended the TCM programme as part of the STARS trial.We completed focus groups and telephone interviews with participating teachers 2 months after they completed the TCM programme. Thematic analysis was used to examine the data, and a framework approach was applied to organize and summarize themes.Teachers liked the structure of the course, the peer group learning environment, delivery methods, and the opportunity to reflect outside the classroom on their practice. They reported that the video clips used lacked cultural relevance and highlighted the importance of group leadership style. Perceived facilitators to implementation included an understanding of the theory underpinning TCM and adaptability of the TCM strategies. Barriers included perceived gaps in the course content in relation to challenging behaviour, applying strategies with older children and the school context within which teachers were working.Our findings suggest high levels of acceptability to TCM overall, but also highlight the need for a whole school approach to combat potential barriers to implementation.

Input is a necessary condition for language acquisition. In the language classroom, input may come from a variety of sources, including the teacher and student peers. Here we ask whether adult Lx learners are sensitive to the social roles of teachers and students such that they exhibit a preference for input from the teacher. We conducted an experiment wherein adult English speakers heard words in an artificial language. During an exposure phase, in one condition a “teacher” produced words with 25 ms of VOT on initial stop segments and a “student” produced the same words with 125 msec of VOT; in another condition the VOT durations were reversed. At test, participants judged productions by a different “student” and demonstrated a preference for the productions that matched the VOT durations of the teacher during exposure, providing evidence for an influence of social factors in differentiating input in Lx acquisition.

Background The Incredible Years® (IY) Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme may be an effective way to reduce teacher stress levels, improve child behaviour, and promote positive socio-emotional development. However, few studies have considered what teachers think of the course and how it might work. Aims In this paper, we examine teachers' perceptions of the impact of the TCM programme and how it might work in the classroom. Sample(s) Forty-four UK primary school teachers who attended the TCM programme as part of the STARS trial (Ford et al., 2018, Psychol. Med., 49, 828). Methods Focus groups and interviews were held with teachers two months after completing the TCM programme. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, Qual. Res. Psychol., 3, 77) was employed to explore the subsequent data. Results Three main themes were identified: impact on the teacher; on children; and on parent-teacher relationships. Impact on the teacher included a positive change in their ethos. Teachers reported being more able to see things from the child's perspective; placing a greater focus on building positive relationships; thinking before responding; feeling calmer, more confident, and in control; and employing strategies to create positive interactions with children. Teachers felt this had had a positive impact on their pupils' development and relationships with parents. Feedback on whether or not TCM was effective in tackling particularly challenging behaviour was more mixed. Conclusions Our findings suggest that teachers experience the TCM programme as beneficial. This is discussed alongside other qualitative and quantitative studies in this field.

Nonnative (L2) English learners are often assumed to exhibit greater speech production variability than native (L1) speakers; however, support for this assumption is primarily limited to secondary observations rather than having been the specific focus of empirical investigations. The present study examined intra-speaker variability associated with L2 English learners’ tense and lax vowel productions to determine whether they showed comparable or greater intra-speaker variability than native English speakers. First and second formants of three tense/lax vowel pairs were measured, and Coefficient of Variation was calculated for 10 native speakers of American English and 30 nonnative speakers. The L2 speakers’ vowel formants were found to be native-like approximately half of the time. Whether their formants were native-like or not, however, they seldom showed greater intra-speaker variability than the L1 speakers.

BACKGROUND: Among children aged 6-16, there is a clear association between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and academic attainment. We wanted to know whether this association was replicated in younger children.AIMS: To explore the relationship between children aged 4-8 with probable ADHD and their academic attainment and school attendance. Secondly, the study aimed to explore their behaviour within school and their reported attitudes towards school.SAMPLE: A total of 1,152 children who were taking part in the Supporting Teachers and Children in Schools (STARS) cluster randomized controlled trial.METHODS: ADHD status was established by using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire predictive algorithm to identify children with probable ADHD. Using baseline data, random-effects regression models on ADHD status were fitted to attainment, attendance, special educational needs (SEN) provision, and attitudes towards school and classroom behaviour; models that were also fitted to attainment were evaluated again at 9, 18, and 30 months after baseline.RESULTS: Children with probable ADHD (n = 47) were more likely than controls (n = 1,105) to have below-expected attainment in literacy (odds ratio (OR) 16.7, 95% CI 6.93-to-40.1), numeracy (OR 11.3, 95% CI 5.34-to-24.1) and to be identified as having SEN (OR-55.2, 95%-CI 22.1-to-137). Their attendance was poorer with more unauthorized absences (rate ratio (RR)-1.91, 95%-CI-1.57-to-2.31). They had more teacher-reported behavioural problems (mean difference (MD) 5.0, 95%-CI 4.6-to-5.4) and less positive attitudes towards school (MD -1.1, 95% CI -0.56 to -1.85). Poorer attainment in literacy and numeracy persisted at all follow-ups.CONCLUSIONS: Children aged as young as 4 whose behaviour indicates probable ADHD struggle to cope at school in terms of academic attainment, attendance, classroom behaviour, and attitude towards school when compared to other children. Early identification and intervention to help these children manage in school are needed.

Research suggests parental psychopathology has an adverse effect on child mental health. However, due to the interactional nature of parent-child relationships and with a high rate of emotional disorders reported in school-age children, it is important to know whether the effect is reciprocal.We explored the longitudinal relationship between child and parent mental health in the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (N=7,100 child-parent dyads) and their three-year follow-ups. The Development and Well-Being Assessment with DSM-IV diagnostic criteria was used to measure child psychiatric diagnoses, while parental mental health was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire. Multivariable logistic regression was used to explore the longitudinal association between child emotional disorder and parent mental health.Parents of children who had an emotional disorder at baseline were more likely to have poor mental health three years later compared with parents whose children had no psychiatric diagnosis (33.3% versus 16.7%; crude odds ratio=2.52; adjusted odds ratio=2.19, 95% CI=1.58 to 3.05, p0.001). Children of parents with poor mental health at baseline were more likely to develop an emotional disorder three years later compared with children whose parents had good mental health (5.2% versus 2.5%; crude odds ratio=2.08; adjusted odds ratio=1.63, 95% CI=1.18 to 2.25, p=0.003).The findings of this research are limited by the survey data collected, the measures used and survey dropout.We detected a bi-directional relationship between child and parent mental health, suggesting that effective intervention for one individual may benefit other family members.

Depression is highly recurrent, even following successful pharmacological and/or psychological intervention. We aimed to develop clinical prediction models to inform adults with recurrent depression choosing between antidepressant medication (ADM) maintenance or switching to Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT). Using data from the PREVENT trial (N=424), we constructed prognostic models using elastic net regression that combined demographic, clinical and psychological factors to predict relapse at 24 months under ADM or MBCT. Only the ADM model (discrimination performance: AUC=.68) predicted relapse better than baseline depression severity (AUC=.54; one-tailed DeLong’s test: z=2.8, p=.003). Individuals with the poorest ADM prognoses who switched to MBCT had better outcomes compared to those who maintained ADM (48% vs. 70% relapse, respectively; superior survival times [z=−2.7, p=.008]). For individuals with moderate-to-good ADM prognosis, both treatments resulted in similar likelihood of relapse. If replicated, the results suggest that predictive modeling can inform clinical decision-making around relapse prevention in recurrent depression.

How long does it typically take a returned foreign fighter to launch a domestic terror attack? The issue of returnees, and appropriate national and international responses to potential threats, has become a preeminent security concern of the 2010s, impacting policies on everything from refugees to whether to permit ISIS fighters to leave the theater of conflict alive. This article attempts to illuminate these contentious debates through a new data set of Lags in Attack Times of Extremist Returnees (LATER) that examines 230 jihadi returnees to Western countries. The data indicate that the majority of attempted attacks occur within one year, with a median lag time of just four months. Prison appears to play no role in lag times. Our findings indicate that security and reintegration efforts should be targeted within the critical six months after return, after which the risk of attack diminishes considerably.

BackgroundWe evaluated the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Incredible Years®Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme as a universal intervention, given schools’ important influence on child mental health.MethodsA two-arm, pragmatic, parallel group, superiority, cluster randomised controlled trial recruited three cohorts of schools (clusters) between 2012 and 2014, randomising them to TCM (intervention) or Teaching As Usual (TAU-control). TCM was delivered to teachers in six whole-day sessions, spread over 6 months. Schools and teachers were not masked to allocation. The primary outcome was teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Total Difficulties score. Random effects linear regression and marginal logistic regression models using Generalised Estimating Equations were used to analyse the outcomes. Trial registration: ISRCTN84130388.ResultsEighty schools (2075 children) were enrolled; 40 (1037 children) to TCM and 40 (1038 children) to TAU. Outcome data were collected at 9, 18, and 30-months for 96, 89, and 85% of children, respectively. The intervention reduced the SDQ-Total Difficulties score at 9 months (mean (s.d.):5.5 (5.4) in TCMv.6.2 (6.2) in TAU; adjusted mean difference = −1.0; 95% CI−1.9 to −0.1;p= 0.03) but this did not persist at 18 or 30 months. Cost-effectiveness analysis suggested that TCM may be cost-effective compared with TAU at 30-months, but this result was associated with uncertainty so no firm conclusions can be drawn. A priori subgroup analyses suggested TCM is more effective for children with poor mental health.ConclusionsTCM provided a small, short-term improvement to children's mental health particularly for children who are already struggling.

This paper assesses the reliability and validity of the teacher-completed Pupil Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ), by comparing it to the already extensively validated teacher-completed Strengths and D...

We present an artificial lexicon study designed to test the hypothesis that native English speakers experience interference from written input when acquiring surface voicing in German words. Native English speakers were exposed to German-like words (e.g., /ʃtɑit/ and /ʃtɑid/, both pronounced [ʃtɑit]) along with pictured meanings, and in some cases, their written forms (e.g., and ). At test, participants whose input included the written forms were more likely to produce final voiced obstruents when naming the pictures, indicating that access to the written forms in the input interfered with their acquisition of target-like surface forms. In a separate experiment, we attempted to moderate this negative impact of the written input by explicitly telling participants about the misleading nature of the words’ written forms, with no beneficial effect on their pronunciation accuracy. Together these findings indicate a powerful influence of orthographic input on second language lexical–phonological development that is not readily overcome by a simple intervention.

SummaryBackground A number of studies demonstrate that children who are younger within their school year have poorer academic attainment and are more likely to have special educational needs. Few, however, have considered the impact relative age may have on child mental health, behaviour and happiness in school. Methods This paper utilized data from the Supporting Teachers and Children in Schools study (2075 pupils aged 5 to 9 years from 80 primary schools) to explore the relationship among relative age, behaviour and happiness in school. Behavioural and emotional development was assessed by using the teacher-reported and parent-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Pupil Behaviour Questionnaire. Children's happiness within school was assessed by using the How I Feel About My School Questionnaire. Results Relatively younger children had higher Total Difficulties scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire than their peers. There was a mean increase per 30-day decrease in relative age of 0.09 (95% CI: 0.03 to 0.16; p = 0.007) in teacher-reported and 0.08 (0.001 to 0.16; p = 0.05) in parent-reported scores. There was little evidence of a relationship between relative age and children's behaviour and happiness in school. Conclusions For children with complex difficulties, being relatively young for their school year may be an additional stressor that may undermine mental health.

Research often demonstrates discrepancies between learners’ perception and encoding of novel lexical contrasts. In some cases, L2 learners appear to establish contrastive lexical representations that are undermined by online perceptual neutralization (e.g., Cutler and Weber, 2006). In others, L2 learners’ target-like online perceptual representations access non-target-like lexical representations (e.g., Darcy et al., 2013). Here we further investigate the relationship between learners’ perceptual and lexical representation of novel contrasts in order to better understand the source of the difficulty that they face. Two groups of naive English speakers learned 5 minimal pairs distinguished by the notoriously difficult [t Π]-[t ʃʰ] aspiration or [t ʃʰ]-[dʒh] voicing contrast among Hindi affricates. Following a word learning phase, participants were tested on their perception and lexical representation of the novel contrasts. We observed that while listeners generally demonstrated perceptual sensitivity to the two affricate contrasts, they failed to encode the novel contrast lexically. Interestingly, there was a significant positive correlation between participants’ perceptual acuity and their ability to contrast newly learned minimal pairs, suggesting that learner’s ability to encode a novel segmental contrast may be predicted by their pre-existing perceptual sensitivity, as has been reported for lexical tone contrasts (e.g., Perrachione et al., 2011).

Background Teaching is a stressful occupation with poor retention. The Incredible Years® Teacher Classroom Management (TCM) programme is a training programme that research has demonstrated may be an effective intervention for improving children's mental health, but little research has explored any impacts there may be on the teachers' own professional confidence and mental health. Aims In this paper, we evaluate whether TCM may lead to changes in teachers' well-being, namely a reduction in burnout and an improvement in self-efficacy and mental health. Sample Eighty schools across the South West of England were recruited between September 2012 and September 2014. Headteachers were asked to nominate one class teacher to take part. Methods Eighty teachers were randomized to either attend a TCM course (intervention) or not (control). TCM was delivered to groups of up to 12 teachers in six whole-day workshops that were evenly spread between October and April. At baseline and 9-month follow-up, we measured teachers' mental health using the Everyday Feelings Questionnaire (EFQ), burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), and self-efficacy using the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale-Short (TSES-Short). Results Using linear regression models, there was little evidence of differences at follow-up between the intervention and control teachers on the outcomes (the smallest p-value was .09). Conclusions Our findings did not replicate previous research that TCM improved teachers' sense of efficacy. However, there were limitations with this study including low sample size.

There is a growing focus on child wellbeing and happiness in schools, but we lack self-report measures for very young children. Three samples ( N = 2345) were combined to assess the psychometric properties of the How I Feel About My School (HIFAMS) questionnaire, which was designed for children aged 4–8 years. Test–retest reliability was moderate (intraclass correlation coefficient = .62). HIFAMS assessed a single concept and had moderate internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha values from .62 to .67). There were low correlations between scores on the child-reported HIFAMS and parent and teacher reports. Children at risk of exclusion had significantly lower HIFAMS scores than the community sample (mean difference = 2.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) = [1.6, 3.2]; p

Native English speakers experience difficulty acquiring Arabic emphatic consonants. Arabic language textbooks have suggested that learners focus on adjacent vowels for cues to these consonants; however, the utility of such a strategy has not been empirically tested. This study investigated the perception of Arabic emphatic-plain contrasts by means of cross-language vowel identification and perceptual discrimination tasks. It was found that native English speakers relied more on following vowels than on the consonants themselves when discriminating Arabic emphatic and plain consonants, and that their accuracy was greatest when the following vowel was /ae/, followed by /u/ and /i/. The cross-language vowel identification task revealed that Arabic /ae/ was identified as a systematically different English vowel (/ɑ/) when following emphatics than when following plain consonants (/ae/), while Arabic /i/ and /u/ failed to exhibit a differential identification pattern. Together these findings indicate that following vowel quality moderates Arabic emphatic consonant perception by English speakers, who may exploit their sensitivity to the English /ɑ/-/ae/ contrast to perceive emphatic-plain contrasts in the context of Arabic /ae/. However, such a strategy is less likely to be successful when the following vowel is /i/ or /u/. Implications and pedagogical suggestions for the teaching of Arabic to native speakers of English are offered.