Background: Mastery and performance goals are typically measured as trait-like abstract goals. However, in their daily academic pursuits, students pursue more concrete goals. The pursuit of these goals is replete with obstacles that can lead to an action crisis. Aims: We examined how mastery and performance goals affect progress, effort and…

Background: Students' initial experiences at university often shape their attendance and attainment. For some students, university is a positive experience, whereas others seemingly struggle and have more negative emotions. Unearthing distinctions in first-year students' emotionality may be valuable in understanding their academic engagement and…

For social justice and change to occur in classrooms, it is necessary to consider the perspective of learners. Voices from learners around math education is limited in research, especially for younger students. This study examined math class from the perspective of elementary students, with math identity and equitable mathematics instruction as…

New approaches are needed when working in rural communities to identify and communicate holistic evaluation impacts related to community-based health promotion efforts of Cooperative Extension. Specifically, there is a lack of recorded long-term programmatic impacts of these programs, including behavior changes related to consuming nutritious and…

This manuscript focuses on student veterans' best option to start their post-high-school education: attending community colleges. It illustrates this point using the story of the author, a US Army combat veteran who began his career at a community college, and other veterans who also began their college careers at the community college. Using…

There are many rewards associated with teaching in public schools, but there are also several challenges such as understaffing, limited resources, overcrowded classrooms, and underpaid employees. All of these issues combined often lead to burnout and mental health concerns among public school teachers, particularly those in urban settings. Since…

Autistic people experience more co-occurring health conditions and, on average, die younger than non-autistic people. Despite growing awareness of health inequities, autistic people still report barriers to accessing healthcare. We aimed to explore the experiences of autistic people accessing healthcare, shining a light on the complex interplay of…

Studies have shown that socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP) is a critical predictor of depression. However, few studies have explored the mechanisms underlying the effects of SPP on depression in Chinese adolescents. Accordingly, the current study aims to explore the relationship between SPP and depression among Chinese adolescents, including…

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by executive dysfunction. Physical activity (PA) may improve executive dysfunction; however, specific barriers and facilitators to PA participation for adults with ADHD have not been formally documented, which was the aim of the present study. Thirty…

Participation in adult education is a crucial component of the active aging framework. However, there have been limited studies exploring the association between participation in adult education and subjective wellbeing among older adults. Furthermore, the underlying mediating and moderating mechanisms in this association have not been extensively…

Objectives: Educators in both Western and non-Western contexts are increasingly acknowledging the necessity of screening for students' psychological dispositions to identify and effectively support at-risk students. The Social-Emotional Health Survey--Higher Education (SEHS-HE) has the potential to offer a practical yet comprehensive measure of…

This doctoral dissertation examines the relationship among the three components of organizational commitment: affective, continuance and normative, job satisfaction, and turnover intent of New Jersey superintendents. Additionally, it examines the interplay between job satisfaction and organizational commitment, exploring whether job satisfaction…

Social difficulties and mental health are primary behavioral health concerns in autistic young adults, perhaps especially during key life transitions such as entering college. This study evaluated how dissatisfaction with social connectedness may predict and/or maintain depression and anxiety symptoms in neurodiverse, first-semester, undergraduate…

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' instructional innovativeness on student engagement, with specific reference to behavioral and emotional aspects of engagement as perceived by the teachers. Given the ever-changing demands of contemporary education, this study underscores…

The current research evaluates the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (PSDM) by considering the links between measures of trait perfectionism and perfectionistic self-presentation and measures of social support, loneliness, and distress in cross-sectional research. A particular focus is on perfectionism and levels of social support as…