This participatory action research (PAR) project explored the factors causing stress in the apparel industry of Sri Lanka, its impact and the coping methodologies adopted by the workers. The PAR team was made of 25 voluntary workers from the apparel industry of Sri Lanka. During the group discussions held, the possible causes for stress, coping strategies used and implications of stress on job satisfaction and intention to leave were discussed, debated, and critiqued. The research used a modified version of the Occupational Stress Indicator (Cooper et al., 1998) and Pressure Management Indicator (PMI) developed by Williams and Cooper (1996) to collect stress related information from 155 workers from different apparel factories. Financial difficulties, abusive supervision and workplace incivility, workload were identified as the main factors causing stress in the apparel industry. The researcher’s role as an insider as well as an outsider to the community and shifting positions from an outside consultant/researcher to an active role were important aspects of the data interpretation. The importance attributed to the participants lived experience, focus on social justice and emancipation were inherent characteristics of PAR. Complementary behaviour and religious support were the categories of most commonly used coping strategies by the factory workers. The relationship with others and the recognition were important factors predicting the job satisfaction. Only the ‘workload’ factor could predict intention to leave among apparel factory workers. The implications of the research suggest the importance in the culture and local context on causes and coping strategies on stress. It added abusive supervision and workplace incivility as a key factor causing stress. The impact of the culture was evident as religious support and complementary behaviour were the main categories of coping strategies.

Social media and communication technology has completely transformed the way that individuals, communities and organizations share and create information. The interactivity, accessibility and usability of social media in particular has made it an extremely popular utility. Political campaigns, celebrity promotions and news disseminations have utilised social media to share important information and raise the awareness of key social issues. Despite this, social media and communication technology also has a great deal of potential to do harm. For example, in 2013, Reddit admitted that their platform had contributed to online witch hunts when groups of users had wrongly named people as suspects in the Boston bombing (Messing & Westwood, 2012). The ease at which individuals can share content also poses risks, with a large potential for the sharing of undesirable material. A survey of 10,000 European children between the ages of 9 and 16 years, reported that 40% of children expressed shock and disgust after being sent violent or pornographic content (Livingstone, Kirwil, Ponte, & Staksrud, 2013). Social media can also contribute to acts of cyberbullying, stalking, and online harassment (Kwan & Skoric, 2013); estimates suggest that 10-40% of youth are victims of cyberbullying (Kowalski, Giumetti, Schroeder, & Lattanner, 2014), and 40% of those who cyberbully report they do so for fun (Raskausas & Stoltz, 2007; Chou & Edge, 2012). Campaigners have called for greater guidance concerning the way communication technology is used, with calls for stricter legislation (NSPCC, 2017). However, at present there is limited research exploring the association between cybervictimization and mental health, particularly in adults. Cybervictimization experiences have many different components. This thesis aims to further explore this and add to the existing evidence base, with a particular focus on cyber harassment of a sexual nature. This review will consist of two chapters. The first chapter will be a systematic review, aimed at exploring the psychological impact of all forms of cybervictimization in adults. The second chapter will specifically explore the effects of cybersexual harassment, with a view to better understanding its associations with anxiety, depression, body image, and trauma.

Teachers play a critical role in responding to, reporting, and preventing bullying. This study focuses on teachers’ perceptions of various types of bullying: physical, verbal, relational, and especially the more recent phenomenon of cyberbullying. It compares English and US teachers’ perspectives of the seriousness of these different types of bullying, thereby investigating how and why teachers have different views of how to address bullying and the different reasons they give as to why they would or would not respond to different bullying scenarios. This can possibly contribute to potential strategies to combat bullying.

The research is based on a sequential explanatory mixed methods design. In the first quantitative phase, the researcher developed two questionnaires, asking teachers for their perceptions of different hypothetical bullying scenarios, drawing on Expectancy Theory and Social Cognitive Theory. Questionnaires were adapted from those previously developed in a series of American studies (Bauman and Del Rio 2006; Yoon and Kerber 2003; Stauffer et al. 2012). They were administered to a purposive sample of teachers in both England and the US in order to provide a comparative element in two English-speaking country contexts. The questionnaires were analysed to establish whether there are differences between the perceptions and the reasons for responses for new and experienced teachers across the two different country contexts. The analyses also explored teacher perceptions of more long-term strategies to deal with cyberbullying.

In the second qualitative phase, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with small sub samples of teachers in both England and the US to provide additional qualitative evidence about teachers’ understandings and experiences of bullying. The interviews explored a number of topics emerging from the quantitative findings pertaining to bullying and cyberbullying, allowing teachers to comment on the survey findings and share their experiences. In addition, the analysis of the qualitative interviews offered the opportunity to provide richer descriptions and insights, building explanations and enhancing understandings. This process enables the research to investigate the degree of similarity between the quantitative and qualitative findings. The combination and integration of findings from both phases of the mixed methods study adds to the ability to triangulate findings and to explore and clarify the reasons for differences in perspectives between English and US teachers. In the mixed sequential explanatory strategy, quantitative findings reveal general trends from the data that are later expanded and investigated further within the qualitative phase. The discussion then explores the nature of the similarities and differences between these findings.

The quantitative findings suggest that three main variables predicted both US and English teachers’ responses to cyberbullying scenarios: the perceived seriousness of the situation, the confidence in one’s ability, and the location (home having less of a response than school scenarios). The qualitative findings suggest that teachers’ perceptions of severity could be shaped by current policies and the relationships teachers developed with their students; the perceived confidence in one’s self could be mediated by one’s interpretation of the school culture and the trust established with others on staff; responding to a home cyberbullying situation could depend on one’s understanding of pastoral responsibilities and the current parental involvement. This research provides new findings that can inform policy makers and practitioners in designing and implementing anti-bullying programs that are relevant to different contexts. Knowledge of teacher perceptions could prove useful as a starting point for developing a teacher education program. An understanding of the different types of bullying and cyberbullying that need attention could enable anti-bullying programs to present new and relevant material.

Introduction: Adolescence is a critical period of self-concept development. However, with the prevalence of social networking site use amongst this age group, this development is now occurring in a completely different context when compared to previous generations. Aims: This study aimed to investigate 1) the intensity of adolescent social networking site use, 2) discrepancies between adolescent and parent estimations of their social networking site intensity and their actual social networking site usage, 3) the relationship between social networking site usage and adolescent self-concept and 4) whether this relationship is mediated by adolescents’ social comparison tendencies.

Methods: A cross-sectional sample of adolescents (N = 86, Mage = 16.8) and their parents completed a web-based questionnaire composed of reliable and validated measures including the Social Networking Intensity Scale and the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents. Participants also recorded their social networking site usage for one week using a recording application installed on their device.

Results: Data analyses included descriptive statistics, a Hierarchical Multiple Regression and a One-Way Analysis of Variance. Results showed that participants spent an average of 1 hour and 35 minutes on social networking sites per day. The most popular sites amongst participants were Instagram, Snapchat and WhatsApp and the most common uses included talking with friends and family, finding entertaining content and feeling involved with what is going on with others. A significant difference was found between self and parent-reported social networking site usage and actual social networking site usage. Time spent on social networking sites or social networking site intensity did not predict adolescents’ general self-concept.

Discussion: The results of this study did not provide evidence as to an association between social networking site intensity and adolescent self-concept. Results, implications and limitations are discussed in relation to previous literature and theory, educational psychology practice and policy.

In less developed countries (LDCs) there is a research deficit on the positive and negative aspects of their respective emerging digital cultures. Education programmes that seek to raise awareness of online safety, needs to be based on evidence and not simply transposed from other countries as the issues involved may be very different. Thailand, in particular, has very little data that can be used to create meaningful educational material. This was determined after a thorough literature review which found that most of the research has been carried out in the advanced economies of North America, Europe and Australasia. By contrast in South East Asia very little research had been carried out. This research proposes an integrative security awareness education framework for emerging digital cultures. It was constructed from the ground up so that it would be evidence led. In the first phase, a survey of the online behaviour and attitudes of young people in Thai schools was undertaken. Between November 2016 and June 2018, 352 students aged between 12 and 18 completed a comprehensive online questionnaire. In addition, 25 students were interviewed and asked to describe their online experiences both good and bad.

From the survey it was found that 69% of students had been upset by an online interaction with 55% experiencing some form of cyber-bullying. They were also exposed to potentially harmful content. At least a third or more had seen posts or discussions on; committing suicide, self-harm, being very thin, sexual images and hate messages against individuals and groups. In terms of mediation the interviews revealed a slightly different picture than the one painted in the survey. In the latter, young people suggested that they did sometimes talk to their parents and teachers about upsetting experiences. In the interviews most said that they did not tell their parents or teachers about negative online interactions. This was backed up during the workshops with most reasoning that what they were going through was not important enough to tell a parent or teacher or that they might be the ones that get blamed. They would either stay silent or tell a close friend.

A series of online safety workshops were carried out, structured around the theme of cyber-bullying, as that was the standout issue from the surveys and interviews. An action-research approach was taken to determine what kind of activities would be best to engage Thai students. Activities that were based around active learning strategies like gamification (i.e., using elements of game design) and involving cooperation or competition proved the most successful. Activities where students had to present something or be involved in classroom discussions did not fare too well.

The resulting education framework from the field research consists of themes and topics that are relevant to LDCs as well as the type of activities that works best. A novel component, ‘Cultural Mask’ was added to the framework. This looks at the influence of a country’s culture and its impact on education. In Thailand this includes the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP). In the education sector, SEP schools should promote student centric learning with creativity, critical thinking and problem solving amongst other goals. Knowledge they learn should lead to the betterment of their school and community. Therefore, the education framework can be adapted to reflect the SEP goals. In other LDCs by working through the education framework, awareness programmes can be developed that will be effective and culturally relevant.

Bullying of autistic children by their peers is prevalent. This is a significant concern, given research linking childhood bullying with adverse mental health outcomes, in both autistic and neurotypical groups.

The first section of this thesis is a scoping review, which aimed to establish what interventions have been developed to reduce the bullying of autistic children. The second section reports an investigation of the feasibility of examining the relationship between bullying victimisation and psychosis-like experiences (PLEs) in autistic children. Following a systematic literature search 10 studies were identified for inclusion in the scoping review. Broadly, interventions focussed either upon skills-development for autistic children, or the promotion of contact between autistic children and neurotypical peers. There was heterogeneity in the research designs used and outcome measures employed.

Overall, the evidence base is in its infancy and there is a need to develop and evaluate multicomponent interventions involving autistic children, neurotypical peers, staff and schools. A quantitative cross-sectional design was used to investigate the feasibility of testing the relationship between bullying victimisation and PLEs in autistic children, and to test the preliminary hypothesis of association between these variables. Parents completed a battery of online questionnaires about their children (N=53). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to test the relationship between the variables of interest, while controlling for: age, sex, family history of psychosis and internalising difficulties.

It was found that there is a lack of suitable questionnaires for measuring PLEs in autistic children, and that recruiting a large sample via a clinical service may not be feasible. Preliminary hypothesis testing failed to establish a statistically significant relationship between bullying victimisation and PLEs in autistic children. However, this should not preclude future work in this area.

This thesis investigates justice and fairness in the UK public sector when formal disciplinary procedures are invoked. The golden thread of justice and fairness in the workplace addresses the following questions:-
1. What types and scale of workplace disciplinary transgressions exhibit in the UK public sector, and are demographics relevant?
2. How the Host employer processes disciplinary cases and what are the experiences at this and other bodies of the parties involved, employees, trade unions, managers, HR, and politicians, and what improvements could be made?
The initial phase comprised a five year longitudinal study of a public sector employer’s disciplinary records, and compared employee demographics with workforce characteristics of which they formed a part. It is unique in being purely case-based, and unlike much research does not conflate grievance and disciplinary cases. Employee demographics of age, gender, tenure and absence show statistically significant linkages to a propensity to commit serious breaches of contract resulting in a formal disciplinary investigation. In the case of gender, evidence strongly points to it being generalizable.

The concluding qualitative phase found isolated examples of ‘good’ practice, but also serious inconsistencies and lapses by employers. Three key concepts emerged. Structural Differentiation where disciplinary criteria were being applied differently across the same employer; Hierarchical Differentiation where senior management interpreted and applied policies in favour of themselves; and Boundary Conditions where gatekeeping decisions are made whether to invoke formal procedures. These Boundary Condition failures saw unimaginable harm being meted out to victims of child sexual abuse, with innumerable employee, service and society implications.

This work tasks Human Resource professionals to be more proactive in constructively using the wealth of data metrics at their disposal, so as to avoid unnecessary investigations, and challenges them along with management to remove impediments to achieving equitable justice and fairness in the workplace.

Research into student bullying in Higher Education (HE) has been limited and most is based on childhood bullying research. Bullying in HE could disrupt student mental health and wellbeing at university – a topic that has recently gained traction. Additionally, marginalised student groups may be more at risk (e.g., LGB+). Focus groups were used to explore students’ conceptualisations of bullying and identify differences between childhood and emerging adulthood (EA) bullying behaviour. Themes identified were power imbalances; tactics of HE bullying; bullying for personal or social gain, and; justifications and minimisations for not intervening (bystander intervention). Examples of bullying behaviour from this first study supplemented the childhood and adult bullying literature to create a new HE bullying scale. The scale was tested on two samples to identify the factor structure (N = 243, N =304). The third survey study (N = 441) adopted a correlational design using the developed scale alongside measures of wellbeing, childhood victimisation, and potential mediator variables, such as university belongingness, social connectedness, and Internal Working Models (IWMs). Group differences were found on victimisation, IWMs, social connectedness, and university belonging, especially for SES and sexual orientation, evidencing the disadvantages that minority groups may suffer within HE. Regression-based path-analyses found that IWMs, university bullying, social connectedness, and university belonging mediated the links between childhood victimisation and current wellbeing. Finally, UK university anti-bullying policies were examined. Policy length and quality varied between universities and a review of content is recommended based on the earlier study findings. This research has produced a new university bullying scale and has also explored mechanisms through which childhood victimisation may have negative effects on current HE student wellbeing. The importance of self- and other- beliefs as well as the social context (e.g. belonging) is stressed.

Systematic Literature Review: Twenty-six articles investigating the psychological experiences of boarding students were identified and subjected to a systematic analysis. Some studies indicated that boarders experience higher levels of psychological distress (especially soon after boarding transition), experience greater incidences of bullying victimisation, engage in more bullying perpetration, and may be at a higher risk of presenting with eating disorder psychopathology. However, other results reported general parity between wellbeing outcomes for boarders and non-boarders, or modest benefits for boarders measures of wellbeing and personality characteristics. Analysis highlighted the lack of research conducted in UK boarding schools, and the need for further research with extended follow-ups. Limitations of the literature and recommendations for professional practice and future research are discussed. Research Paper: Thematic analysis was used to explore the experiences of male ex-boarders who had identified experiences of difficulties in relationships. Three superordinate themes were presented: Disempowerment depicted how participants felt powerless or controlled by others, and the impact this had in later relationships; Suppressing aspects of self and personality related to how participants described hiding emotions or parts of their personality to ‘get by’, and how these strategies presented in adulthood; and A process of recovery was concerned with how participants sought ways to ‘recover’ from their experiences. Findings were discussed in relation to existing theory and literature and highlighted the importance for educational and care institutions to recognise ideological powers, as well as the use of therapeutic interventions that are underpinned by theories of attachment.

In the last few decades, the immigration of the workforce to more developed countries has noted a significant increase. That trend did not avoid Ireland as well. The increased levels of immigration to Ireland has followed the strong economic growth in the 1990s. In 2019, there were 622,700 non-Irish national residents in Ireland accounting for 12.7% of the total population with many of them starting their employment in Ireland through jobs in hospitality. In light of these numbers, it is relevant to examine immigrant’s job satisfaction within the industry. There have been numerous studies on job satisfaction of immigrants, as well as on the overall workforce in the hospitality sector. However, the literature did not compare job satisfaction levels between host nationals and immigrants employed in nonsupervisory positions in pub, bars and restaurants.

The aim of this research was to examine whether differences in job satisfaction between Irish-born and immigrant employees existed in positions which are already recognised for low levels of job satisfaction and to define the categories which made up the biggest difference between the two groups of employees.

A quantitative approach was used for this research with 78 questionnaires completed in full. In the survey, the author has used the well-established Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire which is known for its reliability. The sample was taken by the convenience sampling method. The gathered information was analysed by using IBM SPSS 26 software.

The research has found that immigrant’s job satisfaction is significantly lower compared to their Irish-born employees. The biggest difference between the two groups is shown in the categories of co-workers, responsibility, and supervision−human relations.

The findings will help to fill the above-mentioned gap in existing research and can be used by hospitality managers in order to recognise and reduce the gap in job satisfaction between their immigrant and Irish-born employees.

The aim of this doctoral research is to contribute to the growing body of knowledge concerning workplace bullying by considering the help-seeking experiences of targets of bullying and organisational responses to their complaints. A phenomenological research design was adopted. Twenty-two Irish primary school teachers (7 male, 15 female) self-selected for interview. Data were analysed utilising an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis framework.

All those interviewed had made complaints in accordance with the nationally agreed procedures stipulated to address workplace bullying in their schools. Redress procedures comprises several stages. All had engaged in stage one and two of the official complaints procedures; and all had availed of counselling, with most engaging with the recommended employee assistance service (formerly known as ‘Care Call’ now Medmark). Some participants had ceased engagement at stage 2, while other participants who had proceeded to stage three, ceased engagement at this juncture. Further participants proceeded to stage 4, of whom two are currently proscribed from returning to their posts due to ongoing disputes based upon retaliation for complaints, which comprised challenges to their fitness to work.

It is significant that no participant expressed satisfaction with the outcome of exercising agency and engaging with redress procedures. In fact, complaints procedures served as technologies of power for bullies who launched counterattacks. This doctoral study traced the pre-action, action, response, and overall consequences for the teacher as the target of workplace bullying describing targets’ resistance within the context of complex social interactions and considered possible supportive, preventative, and resolution strategies.

The resultant approach has wide-ranging implications for the present pernicious practices, and it identified a number of proposals for professional practice and modifications in the way in which workplace bullying may be countered and contained. This thesis contributes to discourses of agency in workplace bullying and challenges both researchers and policymakers to fully elucidate the various issues surrounding pathways to redress for bullying. In addition through its emphasis on the power dynamics which characterize redress it extends the limited available literature in the substantive area about the ineffectiveness of complaints procedures.

Moreover, despite the research limitation respecting the modest scale of the study involving self-selecting teachers, the richness of the data elicited underscores the problematic and contingent assumptions underpinning anti-bullying policies and procedures which purportedly address workplace bullying within small organisations.

Aims: The overarching aim of this thesis was to evaluate the implementation of the MindOut social and emotional learning (SEL) programme with disadvantaged post-primary school students (15-18 years old) in Ireland. This study was conducted in three phases, each of which have been published. Phase 1 aimed to evaluate the immediate impact of the MindOut programme on students’ social emotional skills, mental health and wellbeing and academic outcomes. Phase 2 aimed to examine variability in implementation quality and to identify factors that contributed to this variability. Phase 3 aimed to determine how implementation quality impacted on programme outcomes.

Methods: The study employed a cluster-randomised controlled design with mixed methods approaches. A total of 675 students from 32 disadvantaged schools participated at baseline and data were collected from students and teachers before, during and following programme delivery. Phase 1 employed linear mixed models (LMM) to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme on students’ outcomes. Phase 2 used process measures to determine schools’ level of implementation quality across four implementation dimensions, and to identify factors that contributed to implementation quality. Phase 3 employed LMM’s to assess the relationships between the implementation data and outcome data across three time-points and between three treatment groups (high-implementation, low-implementation and control).

Results: Phase 1 demonstrated significant improvements in students’ social and emotional skills: reduced suppression of emotions (p=0.035), use of more positive coping strategies [reduced avoidance coping p=<0.001) and increased social support coping p=0.044)] and mental health and wellbeing: reduced levels of stress (p=0.017) and depressive symptoms (p=0.030) and reduced anxiety scores for female students (p=0.044). Phase 2 detected variability in implementation quality between schools and assigned eight schools to both the high- and low-implementation groups. Influencing factors were categorised into five themes: Programme Factors, Participant Factors, Teacher Factors, School Contextual Factors and Organisational Capacity Factors. Phase 3 revealed significant positive programme effects at post-intervention for the high-implementation group only (reduced suppression of emotions [p=.049]; reduced avoidance coping [p=.006]; increased social support coping [p=.009]; reduced levels of stress [p = .035] and depressive symptoms [p = .025]. At 12-month follow-up, reduced avoidance coping [p=.033] was the only sustained outcome.

Conclusions: Overall, these findings demonstrate that the MindOut programme can be effective in producing positive outcomes for participants, particularly those students of disadvantaged status. However, these positive outcomes were only evident in schools that implemented the programme with high-quality, signifying the importance of implementation quality in the overall success of a programme. The findings from this study have clear implications for policy, practice and future research and highlight a number of important factors to enhance implementation quality and strengthen programme outcomes.

How does it feel when we remember together on-line? Who gets to say what it is worth to be remembered? To understand how the user experience of participation is affecting the formation of collective memories in the context of online environments, first it is important to take into consideration how the notion of memory has been transformed under the influence of the digital revolution. I aim to contribute to the field of User Experience (UX) research theorizing on the felt experience of users from a memory perspective, taking into consideration aspects linked to both personal and collective memories in the context of connected environments. Harassment and hate speech in connected conversational environments are specially targeted to women and underprivileged communities, which has become a problem for digital archives of vernacular creativity (Burgess, J. E. 2007) such as YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and Wikipedia. An evaluation of the user experience of underprivileged communities in creative archives such as Wikipedia indicates the urgency for building a feminist space where women and queer folks can focus on knowledge production and learning without being harassed. The theoretical models and designs that I propose are a result of a series of prototype testing and case studies focused on cognitive tools for a mediated human memory operating inside transactive memory systems. With them, aims to imagine the means by which feminist protocols for UX design and research can assist in the building and maintenance of the archive as a safe/brave space. Working with perspectives from media theory, memory theory and gender studies and centreing the user experience of participation for women, queer folks, people of colour (POC) and other vulnerable and underrepresented communities as the main focus of inquiring, my research takes an interdisciplinary approach to interrogate how online misogyny and other forms of abuse are perceived by communities placed outside the center of the hegemonic normativity, and how the user experience of online abuse is affecting the formation of collective memories in the context of online environments.

Background: According to extensive international research, medical graduates continue to face significant challenges as they transition from student to doctor. Contributory factors include issues with preparedness, support, workplace interactions and challenges to their health and wellbeing. While research to date, in the form of attitudinal information, and common qualitative themes, has afforded us some insight into this formative period, a contemporaneous exploration of the lived experience of transition to practice is lacking. To improve work readiness and ease the transition, focused interventions have been designed and implemented; however, an overview of the research activity into these interventions is also lacking. My thesis aims to address these gaps by achieving a deeper understanding and appreciation of the experience of the first year of practice, by exploring the lived experience of anticipation of practice, the experience over the first year and the experience of intra-professional mistreatment. I will also describe the evidence for interventions to support these doctors.

Methodology: For my longitudinal exploration of the lived experience of the transition, I used the contemporary phenomenological approach of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), which aligns with my interpretivist/constructivist worldview. The methodological frameworks and guidelines of Arksey and O’Malley, Levac and the Joanna Briggs Institute informed my scoping review of the literature into transitional interventions.

Methods: I purposively recruited 14 recent medical graduates. I interviewed them prior to commencing work, regarding their experience of anticipation of practice, and again at the end of their first year with respect to their experience of transition over the year. Each participant recorded audio diaries during the year relating to their experiences. Interviews were recorded, and all data was transcribed verbatim and anonymised. Analysis was carried out using IPA to identify common themes in respect of my research questions. To explore the experience of intra-professional mistreatment during the transition I focused on the data of a subset of three participants. For my scoping review, I assembled a research team of experts. Using relevant terms, we searched Medline Ovid, Embase, PsycInfo, SocIndex, ERIC and CINAHL databases, handsearched key journals, and tracked citations to identify empirical papers describing the implementation and/or evaluation of interventions designed to address preparedness for practice. Papers were screened by abstract and title and then by full text using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was extracted to address the focus of the review.

Results: The experience of anticipation of transition was characterised by the expectation of an abrupt transition, mixed feelings regarding commencing practice and strategic planning in anticipation of the challenges ahead. The hidden curriculum shaped participants’ understanding of what was expected of them and inspired dysfunctional strategies to meet these expectations. I identified overlapping stages in the experience over the first year. An initial emotional response, similar to the ‘transition shock’ described in newly graduated nurses was followed by an increase in confidence, challenges with workload, support and workplace interactions, and a final stage of rationalisation of the challenges encountered during the year. Distressing experiences of victimisation, disrespect and issues securing support from more senior doctors were described, which inspired some maladaptive behaviours. My scoping review revealed a lack of emphasis on real-patient care experiences, on the wellbeing of the graduate, or involvement of allied healthcare professionals, and a lack of standardisation regarding categorisation and terminology used to describe transitional interventions, with low level study design and evaluation.

Discussion: While the abrupt nature of the transition characterised the early experience of commencing work, beyond this, cultural, relational and contextual factors predominated. One way to alleviate the abrupt nature of the transition is to strengthen experience based learning as an undergraduate so that the role of senior medical student approximates that of newly qualified doctor. There is also a need for greater accommodation of the early transition period at organisational level. Deep cultural change is required to address the hidden curriculum and mitigate its negative effects. Interventions to address bullying and harassment, suboptimal supervision, issues with inter-professional collaboration and increased work intensity are also vital to improve the experience of transition to clinical practice. My findings have added to the extant knowledge relating to the transition to clinical practice and will inform undergraduate and postgraduate curricula and interventions to support this important period in the lives of medical graduates.

The increase in the number of students with special educational needs (SEN) studying in mainstream schools in Singapore has led to growing development in inclusive education practices. However, there are few studies that have explored these students’ views about their schooling experiences and the barriers and support that they experience. This present study sought to explore the perspectives of dyslexic learners, their parents and educators on their views on an ideal school environment and actual mainstream primary school experiences. It was hoped that by finding discrepancies between the ideal and actual, the study would raise gaps in the provision and promote positive change in students’ mainstream school experience. Six pairs of dyslexic child-parent dyads, seven pairs of non-dyslexic child-parent dyads and 5 educators who have been in the support of dyslexic individuals in mainstream settings were recruited. All learners had either completed primary education or were in their last few months of completing primary school at the time of research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that dyslexic learners had a greater emphasis on their physiological and safety needs to be met. In contrast, non-dyslexic learners placed a greater focus on developing mastery and gaining in-depth knowledge, while considering the physical aesthetic needs of the learning environment. Dyslexic learners sought to have schools that offered a safe and supportive environment where there are no bullies. Their parents sought for provisions that would build their confidence and school engagement. Dyslexic learners who were interviewed generally had a mixed school experience. Regardless of SEN, all dyslexic and non-dyslexic learners faced the cultural pressure to excel academically, and some experienced bullying and peer difficulties. While all learners found a significant adult at school, the overall support offered varied within and across school and was limited. As stressed by all participants (dyslexic and non-dyslexic) groups, joint efforts by parents, teachers, school leaders, the education system and the wider society is needed to improve inclusion and school experience for all learners. Implications for schools and educational psychologist practice, and recommendations for future research are considered.

Aim: This research sought to understand the experience and perception of relational bullying among young people in England. Background: Bullying among young people has been widely acknowledged as a public health concern. Bullying behaviours can be categorised as physical, verbal, relational and cyber. Relational bullying causes harm through the systematic manipulation and damage of peer relationships and may include behaviours such as rumour spreading and social exclusion. Evidence indicates relational bullying can be detrimental for young people’s wellbeing, but it is often considered to be less harmful than other forms of bullying. Wider perceptions among adults and young people suggest these behaviours are commonly not defined as bullying, particularly in a UK context. Further, relational bullying has traditionally been perceived as a female form of aggression. The way in which relational bullying is perceived is likely to influence detection and intervention efforts; considering the potential negative outcomes for young people, relational bullying warranted further exploration from the perspective of young people themselves. The social-ecological theory has been applied within the study of bullying as it acknowledges the social context in which these behaviours happen; the social-ecological theory may be particularly pertinent to the study of relational bullying which often occurs among friendship groups.

Methods: The social-ecological theory was adopted as a guiding theoretical framework, positioning young people central in the research. A sequential mixed methods approach was employed, with the quantitative methodology playing a dominant role. Secondary analysis of data from 5335 young people (aged 11, 13 and 15 years old) who participated in the 2014 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study in England was undertaken. Descriptive statistics established the prevalence and demographic picture of relational bullying. A series of three multilevel regression models examined the association between relational bullying and three health and wellbeing outcomes: general self-rated health, health related quality of life (HRQL) and life satisfaction. A fourth multilevel regression model identified factors from the ecologies of young people which helped them to successfully navigate relational bullying. The quantitative findings informed 11 face-to-face interviews with young people (aged 12-18 years), providing a unique opportunity to gain in-depth insight into young people’s perspective of relational bullying and the factors which they perceived as influencing the navigation of relational bullying.

Results: The quantitative analysis identified 16.6% of the young people (13.7% of boys and 19.7% of girls) had experienced relational bullying in the ‘past couple of months’ prior to the survey. Multilevel regression models identified a significant association between experiencing relational bullying and reporting poorer health and wellbeing outcomes, whilst controlling for other forms of bullying and demographic variables. Possessing positive attributes in relation to body image, general self-efficacy, family activities and family support significantly increased the odds of reporting improved wellbeing amongst those who experienced weekly relational bullying. Thematic analysis of qualitative data resonated with the quantitative findings, also illustrating the harmful effects of relational bullying and identifying internal (e.g., personal wellbeing) and external (e.g., the family) resources which young people perceived as supporting them through relational bullying. Further, the qualitative findings provided insight into the perspectives and experiences of young people, including the role of social media and friends in relational bullying. Both the quantitative and qualitative findings were united in order to inform the development of the Young People’s Relational Bullying model, which provides a visual illustration of how young people experience and perceive this form of bullying.

Conclusions: Relational bullying is significantly associated with the health and wellbeing of young people. Bullying interventions, and those which help enable young people to manage friendships and peer relationships successfully, are likely to have considerable reach in terms of improving the health of young people. The results challenge the assumption of relational bullying as a female problem, with both boys and girls reporting equal levels of distress from relational bullying. The research identifies factors from the young person’s perspective which may help and hinder the navigation of relational bullying – the family plays a crucial role in mitigating the negative effects, supported by both the quantitative and qualitative results. The Young People’s Relational Bullying model provides a framework for understanding relational bullying, with a focus on the young person’s perspective. Considering wider inconsistent understandings of relational bullying it was important to recognise how young people themselves experience these behaviours. While this study specifically focused on relational bullying, the results are likely to have relevance to other forms of bullying.

Autistic people have described masking, or ‘camouflaging’, parts of the self in order to avoid repeated bullying, discrimination, social rejection and in order to meet neuro-normative social expectations. This thesis explores the relationship between autistic people’s experiences of masking and mental health. Part 1 is a conceptual introduction to autism, mental health and masking. Explanations for the increased prevalence of mental health difficulties for autistic people are explored. Masking is identified as a potential factor mediating this relationship. The review discusses different ways of conceptualising masking and explores the drivers and consequences of masking for autistic people. The review concludes with a summary of existing research into the relationship between masking and mental health difficulties. Part 2 is a qualitative study seeking to understand autistic teenager’s experiences of masking and how this relates to their mental health. Semi structured interviews were conducted with 20 autistic teenagers and transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. Bidirectional relationships between masking and negative mental health related factors, and conversely between authenticity and positive mental health related factors, were described. Both processes were driven by social and environmental factors. The findings support a broader conceptualisation of masking and have implications for diagnostic and therapeutic clinical services. Part 3 is a critical appraisal of the research process. Personal reflexivity is used to consider the impact of the researcher’s perspective on the research. Introspection is used to identify broader theoretical perspectives to inform system-level implications of the research. Reflections on the essentiality of co-production are also presented.

Research has identified that workplace bullying is a significant problem within healthcare, with healthcare trainees at particular risk. However, there are no studies of workplace bullying within clinical psychology or of trainee clinical psychologists. The aim of the current study was to explore the experiences of workplace bullying from the perspectives of trainee clinical psychologists. Fourteen trainee clinical psychologists were recruited from UK universities and participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Data was analysed using thematic analysis within a critical realist epistemology. The analysis generated four main themes: workplace bullying ‘activating threat responses’, the process of trainee clinical psychologists ‘making sense of bullying’, ‘difficulties navigating power within the system’ when experiencing and reporting bullying, and ‘finding safety and support’ within and outside of work contexts. The results are considered in relation to existing research, as well as Compassion Focussed Therapy theory and the Power Threat Meaning framework. Clinical implications are recommended at an individual level, within the profession of clinical psychology and for the wider healthcare system.

Social media has changed how society communicates, transformed how individuals access the latest headline news and has altered many aspects of everyday life. It has, in turn changed the way in which individuals can target other members of society. In recent years, society has seen the likes of Facebook and Twitter used to distribute hate speech, accommodate revenge pornography and abuse others online. Consequently, the Government and the criminal justice system are being put under increasing pressure to tackle online abuse. Many of the current legal provisions contained in the law of England and Wales were enacted before the creation of social media. Yet these Acts are used to prosecute those who conduct abusive behaviour online. Issues are therefore arising with the adaptation of Acts of Parliament never intended to cover a digital age.

This thesis will critically examine several Acts of Parliament which have been used to control unlawful behaviour on social media sites, including, though not limited to, the Public Order Act 1986, the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. It will be argued that the current use of these Acts breaches the fundamental principle of legality in the criminal law, before turning to examine freedom of speech and privacy online. Legality, at its very basic means the law needs to be accessible and clear to maintain the rule of law.

The final parts of this thesis will examine how other countries and institutions govern online behaviour. In the conclusive chapters, recommendations will be put forward as to how the legal system and society can better protect those who are abused online, including a draft social media Bill and a proposed universal code of conduct.

The ever-increasing use of social media in the internet space have induced a number of problems like cyberbullying and cyberaggression over the internet. Researchers have made a commendable progress on the ongoing fight against cyberbullying but a lot of unresolved issues still persist that primarily motivates the purpose of the research. The paper aims to integrate recent advances in the field of word embedding like fastText, ELMo and stacked flair embeddings combined with a host of robust deep learning techniques to further the efficiency of detection over the state-of-art. Two distinct datasets Formspring and Wikipedia were requested and processed for the purpose of the research. A number of different combinations of word embedding with deep learning methods were tested and compared with CNN with ELMo embedding delivering the most promising results with an F1 score of 0.82 on both datasets. On the other hand, CNN with fastText obtained F1 score of 0.82 on Formspring and 0.64 on Wikipedia dataset but was computationally faster than the counterparts. Moreover, transfer learning was performed using the models to test and prove the robustness and efficacy of the models. The system performed considerably well with superior scores in precision, recall and F1 over the state-of-the-art across all the test cases performed.