Immigration to Ireland in the late 20th and early 21st century has transformed Irish society from being a largely mono-cultural to a more intercultural society. This study is concerned with the experience of migrant students in a second level school. It explores the experiences of a small number of migrant students who completed five years of second level education in a provincial Irish town. The students came from a range of countries in Eastern Europe and Africa. This is a one-school insider case study where the principal is the researcher using qualitative interviews with students and staff to build a picture of intercultural education with its strengths, weaknesses and suggestions for improvement. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with students in the year or two after they completed school. Teachers’ experiences were also analysed using questionnaires and interviews. The portrait that emerges is that of a school in transition with a vibrant and complex intercultural student population. Themes emerging as significant from the research include the school curriculum, bullying and racism, relationships with teachers, the role of parents, the experience of socialisation and schooling and pedagogical responses. These complex issues are discussed in light of student experiences, teacher comments and insights from literature. Recommendations are made for a more inclusive curriculum, for celebrating the resource that is an intercultural classroom, for a pedagogy of cooperative learning, peer education and action research by students and teachers.

This thesis aimed to examine the functional relationship between adolescent bullying victimisation and alcohol-misuse using two comorbidity models: a causal model and a common underlying mechanism model. This research had 4 main aims: 1) to investigate the risk conferred by adolescent bullying victimisation on alcohol-misuse, focusing on the role of coping-drinking motives; 2) to understand the risk conferred for victimisation from neurotic personality traits previously implicated in alcohol-misuse, whilst focusing on the role of emotional symptoms; 3) to compare the behavioural and neurological emotional vigilance of adolescents who have either experienced bullying victimisation or a severe trauma to non-victimised participants; 4) to investigate the effect over 18-months of personality-targeted coping-skills interventions on reducing victimisation, coping-drinking motives and alcohol-related problems in victims with high levels of neurotic personality traits. These objectives were addressed using data from three independent studies: The Preventure and Adventure studies which administered personality-targeted interventions for adolescents (aged 13-16 years) and the IMAGEN study. Evidence was provided for both comorbidity models. A causal comorbidity model was supported with results showing that bullying victimisation predicted future alcohol-misuse, a relationship mediated by coping-drinking motives. Two neurotic personality domains, which have been previously implicated in alcohol-misuse, predicted risk for victimisation, mediated by the development of emotional symptoms, therefore supporting a common mechanism model of comorbidity. Victims displayed a hypervigilance for fearful face stimuli, which was similar to trauma-exposed adolescents. A combined-victim group with a high level of emotional impact showed increased brain activation for angry and ambiguous faces. Within this group, emotional symptoms were positively associated with increased neural response to angry and ambiguous faces in areas including the anterior cingulate cortex. Finally, results suggest that personality-targeted interventions can reduce victimisation and increase positive coping strategies, in addition to reducing coping-drinking motives and alcohol-related problems specifically for victims of bullying.

Aim The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) on the lives of young people and identify factors that promote resilience to mental health difficulties within this population. Methods The study used a mixed methods approach. Results from the analysis of data from a longitudinal population-based birth cohort, the Avon longitudinal Study of Parents and Children {n=6,902) were synthesised with qualitative data from a purposive sample of 11 young people with clinically diagnosed DCD aged 11 to 16 years. Findings from the qualitative study highlighted areas that were important in the lives of the young people interviewed. These areas, such as the importance of friendship groups, bullying and a positive sense of self, were added to the final analytical model as explanatory mediators in the relationship between DCD and mental health difficulties. Findings In total, 123 young people (1.8% of the eligible cohort aged seven years), met all four diagnostic aThis thesis presents research that explored the nature of bullying amongst girls aged 12 to 15 years old in Northern Ireland. The aim of the research was to provide insight into bullying amongst girls of this age through investigating types of female friendships and the impact they may have on the ways in which girls can experience bullying. The roles adopted by girls in relation to bullying are seen from multiple viewpoints of bully, target and bystander. Furthermore, the thesis considers the relatively new phenomenon of ‘cyberbullying’ by exploring how girls use technology such as mobile phones and the Internet in their everyday lives and how this technology offers new and alternative ways to participate in and experience bullying. In order to investigate the participants’ different perceptions and experiences of bullying. Goffman’s theory of social interactions as a performance has been used as an analytical framework. The study sample consisted of 494 questionnaire responses from girls aged 12 to 15 years old across eight schools in Northern Ireland, and eight semi-structured interviews conducted online using instant messenger. A social networking site, Bebo, was used to communicate more widely with possible participants. The study found that the majority of girls have been a target of bullying at some stage with participants reporting experiences involving a diverse range of methods. The findings provide insight regarding the methods girls use to bully and how age is a significant factor regarding the ways in which girls tend to participate in bullying. The study found that over ninety five percent of participants owned a mobile phone and had internet access at home. As these technologies may be used as alternative ways to bully, it is important that adults understand this new area in order to assist girls in their experiences of bullying.
criteria for DCD using strict (5th centile) cut-offs (severe DCD). In addition, 346 young people met wider inclusion criteria (15th centile of a motor test and activity of daily living scales) and were defined as having moderate or severe DCD. These young people with moderate or severe DCD had increased odds of difficulties in attention, short-term memory, social communication, non-verbal skills, reading and spelling. They also had increased odds of self-reported depression, odds ratio: 2.08 (95% confidence interval (Cl) 1.36 to 3.19) and parent reported mental health difficulties, odds ratio: 4.23 (95% Cl 3.10 to 5.77) at age nine to ten years. The young people interviewed did not see themselves as disabled. Factors that increased a positive sense of self were inclusion in friendship groups, information that helped them understand their difficulties and being understood by parents and teachers. These findings were mirrored in the quantitative analysis which showed that the odds of mental health difficulties reduced after accounting for social communication difficulties, bullying, lower verbal intelligence and self-esteem. Conclusions Developmental Coordination Disorder is a common developmental disorder in childhood. The difficulties seen in these young people are complex and assessment needs to be multidisciplinary and consider neurological causes of poor motor coordination, the presence of coexisting developmental difficulties and associated mental health difficulties. Due to the high prevalence of the condition, ongoing one-to-one therapeutic interventions are not feasible. School based interventions, using therapists as trainers, working within a socio-medical model of disability, could work to promote resilience within the individual and improve the acceptance of differences in abilities within the school.

Forty years of research has established bullying as a globally pervasive, adverse experience associated with a multitude of immediate and longer-term negative life outcomes. The school is identified as a site with a high concentration of bullying. As a result, a number of school-based anti-bullying interventions have been developed and implemented with the hope of reducing overall prevalences of the behaviour and negating its negative impact on a new generation. KiVa is one such school-based anti-bullying programme, developed and designed for national use in Finland in 2006. KiVa has since been subject to a number of cross-cultural investigations of transferability, efficacy and success.

To date, however, KiVa research, including several UK based studies, has been solely conducted in mainstream primary school settings. As a result, there are no reports on the use of the programme with a population of students with additional learning needs, despite evidence that these students are particularly vulnerable to both being bullied, and bullying others. The present case study is an attempt to address this gap in the literature, and follows the implementation of KiVa (Unit 1) over one academic year in the middle department (n = 46, ages 12–15) of a large special school in North Wales. Qualitative and quantitative data from teachers implementing the programme and students in receipt of the programme are included.

Teachers participated in semi-structured interviews, and completed weekly Teacher Lesson Records as a measure of implementation fidelity, and a final Teacher Survey at the end of the academic year to explore their final perceptions of the programme. Students completed the online pre-and post-KiVa Pupil Survey, and ten students were invited to participate in focus groups at the end of the academic year. The research has two central aims; the first, to assess the feasibility of implementing KiVa in this novel setting and document any adaptations necessary for implementation, and the second, to investigate programme impact on students with additional learning needs in this setting, together these aims help to determine the acceptability of KiVa in this novel setting.

Though feasibly implemented in this setting, KiVa required a number of minor adaptations to improve intervention-setting-fit, and a number of more fundamental programme changes which may have negatively impacted programme success and student outcomes. Declines in students’ perceptions of school climate and increases in student self-reported victimisation and cyber victimisation are observed, however teachers believed that KiVa also led to positive developments in terms of students personal, social and emotional learning, and may therefore meet positive though unintended needs of this student population. Results suggest mixed acceptability in this setting. Limitations of the present research are discussed, followed by avenues of future research raised by the results gathered.