Justin’s Monthly Hot Topic

On the last day of school in 2015 I met with an Assistant Principal (who asked to remain anonymous). That morning he had found a letter in his drawer from an unknown student who had snuck into (or broken into) his office to leave a note containing a message the student was unprepared to share with […]

My 8 year-old daughter recently complained to me about a boy in her grade. “Dad, he keeps on trying to kiss me. Today at recess he kissed me twice on the face. I keep telling him to ‘Stop it!’ and he doesn’t.” Historically this kind of incident may have been called cute. Parents or staff […]

  There is a significant push to eradicate bullying, domestic violence, disrespect, and unkindness in our schools, communities, and families. This is to be applauded. Frustratingly, we are often going about our efforts in ways that all-too-often entrench a power-centric, bullying culture. We treat children who act unkindly with more unkindness. We treat children who […]

In 2014, Andrew Fuller, one of Australia’s well-known child and adolescent psychologists, ran a study about resilience with approximately 16000 Aussie youth. The children who were most resilient almost universally agreed with two statements that children with the lowest resilience disagreed with. They were: I have a parent who cares about me I have a […]

Think of two children you have regular contact with: one who is resilient and happy, and one who is struggling and languishing. Imagine you are interviewing each of them, and you ask them to respond to each of these six questionnaire items: I think I am doing pretty well. I can think of many ways […]

One of the most exciting research findings from positive psychology is the amazing wellbeing boosts that can be achieved when we harness our own strengths, and the strengths of our children or students. It seems that when we know what our strengths are – or when our children and students can identify their strengths – […]

Consumer culture is making our children unhappy. The drive to have the latest stuff, and to look ‘hot’ is associated with a downward spiral of poorer peer relationships and lower self-esteem. And it is starting from the age of 8 – if not sooner. In a recent study of 1000 children aged 8-14, researchers found […]