Learning is enabled in an environment that promotes connectedness. This belief led me to an exploration of connectedness and the discovery that connectedness has more than one connotation in the literature. For some it means making connections within curriculum areas, which is closely associated with the understanding that connectedness means teaching and learning within a community of learners. Another body of literature understands connectedness as a person’s sense of belonging within the family, school and wider community. Embedded in all these understandings of the term is either implicit or explicit reference to empowerment.An exploration of learning necessarily involves an exploration of students and teachers perceptions of effective learning. The exploration of learning focuses on: teacher and students understanding of learning, student expectations and achievements within the classroom, the opportunities for participation and contribution. The various understandings of connectedness, empowerment and learning are linked in the exploration of the following themes within the classroom: Building caring relationships, Setting high and achievable expectations and Providing opportunities for participation and contribution (Bernard, 1991; 1997; MindMatters, 2000). The context is the middle years of schooling as the last 10 years has produced research that delivers findings asking teachers in the middle years to negotiate a curriculum that is based on people. Effective teaching and learning is essential if students are to achieve their potential, should be cooperative and be fostered within a reflective community atmosphere. Relationships are to the fore in all concepts of effective middle schooling and this case study explores relationship as they exist at Garden College in year seven. It is these relationships that promote a sense of belonging to and empowerment within the learning community, thus enabling learning. If schools are to “expedite the development of effective middle schooling” (Schools Council, National Board of Employment, Education and Training, 1993, p. 65), by addressing the issues highlighted above, I believe the concepts of connectedness, empowerment and learning must be fully explored by the community of learners in each school.

Relationen mellan sexualitet och andlighet har länge varit ett tabubelagt ämne inom såväl psykologin som i samhället i stort. Enligt aktuell forskning finns det dock anledning att trotsa denna motvilja. Syftet med studien var att undersöka om oandliga och andliga individer samt män och kvinnor skiljer sig åt vad gäller sexuell tillfredsställelse och sexuella behov samt effekten av mindfulness. Studien utfördes genom en delvis egenkonstruerad webbenkät för att mäta sexuell tillfredsställelse, andlighet och sexuella behov. Studien omfattade 213 deltagare varav 105 andliga, 76 män och 117 utövare av mindfulnessbaserade aktiviteter. Resultatet visade att andliga skattade högre på andlig sexuell tillfredsställelse samt andliga sexuella behov. Vidare värderade kvinnor generellt kvantitativa aspekter såsom tidpunkt för samlag och orgasmfrekvens samt fysisk tillfredsställelse högre än män. Deltagare som utövade mindfulness skattade högre på andlig sexuell tillfredsställelse samt upplevde mer närvarande sex. Deltagarnas kommentarer belyser en ännu sparsamt vetenskapligt utforskad dimension av sex vilket diskuteras.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not risk and protective factors (socioeconomic status, social connectedness, negative reactivity temperament, approach/withdrawal temperament, social acceptance competence, behavioral conduct competence, and global self-worth) measured in middle childhood would statistically predict the prevalence of suicide-related ideations and behaviors in high school. This study highlights the importance of examining a population of this age range prior to entering a critical developmental stage, shown to be at increase the risk for suicide. Due to the growing rates of suicide in adolescence, the objective is for this population to be regarded as a main target of future suicide prevention and intervention techniques. As such, the current study examined specific risk and protective factors in middle childhood with the goal to help identify a profile for adolescents in high school at risk for future suicide-related ideations and behaviors or to determine those who have developed protection against this health-risk behavior. The sample for this study was taken from two larger longitudinal studies with student participants from three rural school districts of central Texas. The data were analyzed using binary logistic and multiple linear regression analysis. While the findings of this study revealed statistically significant relationships between three out of the seven predictive variables (self-connectedness, global self-worth, and behavioral conduct competence), the results were not robust. Given the minimal significance of these exploratory findings, further analysis is suggested before development of intervention programs is warranted. / text

There is a growing body of interest in wellbeing across political, educational and social bodies in the UK. The thinking behind this is for human as well as economic reasons, to help people make more informed choices in their lives. There are suggestions to measure wellbeing more often and use that data to help government improve policies and enable companies and individuals to live more productive lives for example by considering being more altruistic to improve personal and family wellbeing during a time of financial austerity (O’Donnell, 2014: 9). There is a fundamental problem however in that there is no common understanding of what wellbeing is across different bodies and agencies, including education, mainly because the term is subjectively defined. Yet teachers are required to report to parents on children’s wellbeing and also safeguard their wellbeing, Teachers’ Standards 2012 (DfE, 2013), but there are no common measures of wellbeing in use nationally. The purpose of this case study is to try to reduce ambiguity about wellbeing issues through identifying gaps in knowledge in the literature about what wellbeing in schools is. The investigation uses qualitative methods and as an inside researcher, to aid authenticity of data, a two-tier approach to gathering data is taken within a constructivist paradigm. The approach enables three voices to be heard, that of pupils and parents (data set one) and then teachers (data set two). The first pupil theme revealed that pupils had a strong sense of connectedness to the school, friends and teachers while the second theme showed approaches to learning that had resonated with pupils. The theme to emerge from parents was a loving community where they felt enabled to entrust their children to teachers who were passionate about their role and evidenced compassion in their working with children. Themes from teachers revealed responsive and enthused professionals who, through collaboration in action learning sets, influenced transition arrangements and ways they felt they could be further empowered in their role. Wellbeing deriving from empowerment through interconnected relationships within and across the three groups leads to an analysis of the community as one that accepts difference. The significance of this for wellbeing in education and policy is discussed.

LGBTQ individuals may be at risk for suicidal behavior due to perceived stigma and psychopathology. However, protective factors, such as community connectedness, may reduce risk. We examined depression and anxiety as mediators of the linkage between perceived stigma and suicidal behavior, and the moderating role of LGBTQ community connectedness. Among our sample of LGBTQ persons (N = 496), psychopathology mediated the association between perceived stigma and suicidal behavior. Connectedness moderated the relation between perceived stigma and depression, and between perceived stigma and suicidal behavior in the anxiety model. Therapeutically addressing stigma and promoting LGBTQ community connectedness may reduce risk for suicidal behavior.

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To meet the purpose of the study, three hypotheses were tested: First, it was predicted there was a relationship between spousal connectedness and personal and spousal ICT (information and communication technology) device usage; second, it was predicted satisfaction with personal or spousal ICT device usage were mediators of the primary relationship between spousal connectedness and ICT device usage; and third, it was expected communication moderated the relationship between spousal connectedness and personal ICT device usage. A representative sample of married adults (n=208) were sampled. Personal and spousal ICT device use, satisfaction with personal and spousal ICT device use, spousal connectedness, and communication were measured and the resulting data analyzed. Regression analyses and path analyses were performed to test the hypotheses. The first and third hypotheses were found to be significant, but the second was not. The negative relationship between personal ICT device use and spousal connectedness indicates that as ICT device use increases, connectedness decreases. Communication, however, was shown to buffer this relationship. Data indicated that the more a person recalled communicating with their spouse, the less prominent was the relationship between their personal ICT device use and spousal connectedness.

This study investigates how existential connectedness and pet attachment influence loneliness in pet owners. Existential connectedness is a relatively new concept that further explains the relationship between loneliness and pet attachment. Participants completed the Existential Isolation Questionnaire, the Lexington Attachment to Pet Scale, and the UCLA Loneliness Scale in order to explore whether higher attachment to a pet is related to decreased loneliness among pet owners with low existential connectedness. Participants with low existential connectedness and high pet attachment to a personal pet of their own had significantly lower loneliness scores than those participants with low existential connectedness and low pet attachment. The participants with high existential connectedness had lower levels of loneliness overall and showed no difference in loneliness scores between low and high pet attachment. This study advances the understanding of the complicated relationship between pet ownership and loneliness in pet owners.