Knowledge Transfer Grant Success
Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg - 'Coping Skills for Adolescents: Prevention and Intervention'.
In the second annual University Knowledge Transfer Grants and Awards, Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg from the Melbourne Graduate School of Education was successful in receiving one of four Awards for her programs in 'Coping Skills for Adolescents: Prevention and Intervention'.
The Award centred on the development and ongoing research and teaching relating to two coping skills programs, namely, the Best of Coping (2007) (with Cathy Brandon) and Coping for Success CD-Rom (2007) as tools for social and emotional development.
These two products teach the language and constructs of coping, including productive and non-productive coping strategies such as help seeking, problem solving, goal setting, and time management. They build on extensions of the more than 100 publications on the coping skills measurement tools (officially translated into 12 languages) and published earlier by the Australian Council for Educational Research. Best of Coping has to date been translated to French, Italian and Hebrew, implemented, and research reported in the refereed publications. There is French publication of the program.
An earlier version of the Best of Coping program was published and distributed by Oz Child, a not for profit organization providing services in the educational sector. In 2005 it was distributed by Curriculum Licensing Services of the University of Melbourne, and in 2007 Best of Coping was published by the Australian Council for Educational Research. The computer-based program, Coping for Success, was created in 2004-2006 with University of Melbourne Multimedia grant.
In the past five years 11 distinct research projects have been completed using the Best of Coping Program and two to date on the Coping for Success CD-Rom, with each study being reported in refereed publications (7 national and 6 international) and involving one Master of Education, 10 Master of Educational Psychology and one Doctor of Educational Psychology student researchers.
By the end of 2008 there will be 20 conference presentations in collaboration with postgraduate students (8 national and 12 international) on the two programs. The numerous research projects that have been completed and subsequently published provide evidence of utility and acceptance of the products as well as benefiting deriving from the use of the products for the training of young researchers.
The numerous adaptations and extension of the Best of Coping program for targeted groups has provided an extensive range of benefits for the health and wellbeing of young people.
The programs have also been integrated into numerous subjects, and more particularly in recent years the Coping for Success program has been incorporated into the professional skill building or Master and Doctor of Educational Psychology programs and as part of the Promoting Wellbeing elective in the new Master of Teaching course.
This innovative extension of coping measurement tools and theoretical developments to educational intervention has benefited many thousands of young people around the world.
The list external partners joining Associate Professor Frydenberg and her team in achieving these outcomes includes the Australian Research Council; Department of Justice; Oz Child Australia; Australian Council for Educational Research; Catholic Educational Office; Australian Psychological Society; Alpha Autism Australia; Cheneliere Education (Quebec)
For further information on this program:
Associate Professor Erica Frydenberg
Phone: +61 3 8344 9541
Fax: +61 3 8344 0995
Email: e.frydenberg@unimelb.edu.au
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