In this article, we highlight how adults remain emotionally involved with transitional objects, such as stuffed animals, carried over from their childhoods. Drawing on focus groups involving undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and childhood studies programs, we found that the participants' reflections of their stuffed animals…

Language learning can be very emotional, as anyone who has ever tried to learn or use another language (L2) will attest. The range of emotions varies widely in both type and intensity, from the thrill of successfully articulating yourself, for example, to the anxiety of navigating a high-stakes encounter in an L2. It is not surprising, therefore,…

The 2022 American College Health Assessment (ACHA) reported over 75 percent of college students surveyed indicating moderate to serious psychological distress, along with over 53 percent of students feeling lonely. Additionally, the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State 2022 Annual Report identified a significant increase over a…

Loneliness becomes more prevalent as youth transition from childhood into adolescence. A key underlying process may be the puberty-related increase in biological stress reactivity, which can alter social behavior and elicit conflict or social withdrawal (fight-or-flight behaviors) in some youth, but increase prosocial (tend-and-befriend) responses…

Returning to studios after COVID-19, student-teacher tensions seem to be higher than ever. Teenagers who spent the beginnings of their young adulthood in isolation clash with instructors who might mistake their stress and insecurity for apathy and laziness. In this article, I examine my personal experience with teaching teenagers and offer…

Teaching music can be a stressful endeavor. Decades of research findings indicate that music teachers are especially prone to professional burnout. The purpose of this research-to-resource article is to equip music teachers and other educational stakeholders with research-informed definitions, warning signs, and potential remedies for burnout.…

After years of pandemic, lockdowns, remote learning, and anxiety, it is no surprise that high school students are feeling stressed. But how does that stress affect them as they search for colleges? To answer that, RNL and ZeeMee went straight to the source and polled high school seniors about the stress, anxiety, and worry they felt. The…

Learning a foreign language incorporates cognitive, communicative, emotional, and social aspects. Some of these aspects have to do with the structure of the language being studied; some others deal with social and psychological issues that influence the environment where the learning process takes place. This reflection paper addresses various…

Race-based traumatic stress, also called racial trauma, refers to "mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias and ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes" (Mental Health America, n.d.). While much research on racism-based stress in schools focuses on teachers, school psychologists can just as easily cause…

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to demonstrate far-reaching impact on individuals, families, and communities. Emerging research highlights the detrimental impact of the pandemic on perinatal mental health. Warm Connections is a behavioral health program embedded in Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women,…

Music is an invaluable facet of everyday human life. Whether we are the music makers or someone else is "musicking" for us (in person or through our earbuds), we are drawn to it, touched by it, engaged in it, and often captivated by it. Adults and children alike spend a considerable chunk of their waking hours listening to music and…

If the recent turbulent times have shown educators anything, it is that we need to be prepared to address our own and our students' social and emotional needs. However, moments of tension are not the time to start. Rather, students need to be prepared to engage in meaningful ways with skills and competencies. To achieve this state of readiness,…

Observations of low student motivation, siloed learning, student loneliness and anxiety, along with a disconnect between classroom learning and life application inspired the authors to explore possible causes. They studied the correlates of classroom-community-life connection and implemented their learning in the revision of a language and culture…

The number of migrants around the world has increased over the last decade, which can be attributed, in part, to increased violence from wars in the Middle East (Böhm et al., 2018; Hahnefeld, 2021; Reavell & Fazil, 2017; USA for UNHCR, 2022). About half of refugees are children (Amnesty International, 2022). These children are at risk of…

Women hospitalized on an antepartum unit can benefit from an open studio art therapy group. A case description follows six women over five group sessions. Several common experiences that occurred throughout the sessions included isolation/boredom, uncertainty, lack of control, and family. Art therapy in a group setting allowed the women to express…