To evaluate a standardized play observation as a measure of young children’s mental health and development in a clinical and refugee population. We conducted individual play observations with 70 refugee children aged 3- to 6-years and compared them to a clinical group of 111 age-matched children regarding their level of play development, social interaction during play, traumatic re-enactments, and emotionless-cold play. Additionally, we assessed children’s mental health, social-emotional development and markers of adversity by parent and educator report as well as their IQ-test scores and learning performance and related these factors to the play variables. Play variables were significantly correlated with IQ-test scores (r = 0.184, p = 0.037), learning performance (r = 0.208, p = 0.010) and vocabulary (r = 0.208, p = 0.021) in the comparison group and with social-emotional development in educator report (r = 0.368, p = 0.011), time spent in Germany (r = 0.342, p < 0.001) and parental distress (r = − 0.292, p = 0.034) in the refugee group. Children with more parent-reported adverse experiences showed less social-interactive play in the overall sample (r = − 0.178, p = 0.011). Our child-centered approach to standardized play observation augments information obtained from parent and educator reports and can provide valuable insights in subgroups where other commonly used tests are not available or applicable.

Studies indicate the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in rises in adolescent mental health symptoms globally, although the impact of the pandemic on subjective wellbeing is under-researched in this population. Psychological capital (PsyCap), a cluster of four positive psychological constructs comprising hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism (HERO), has demonstrated preventative and promotive qualities on mental health symptoms and subjective wellbeing outcomes with adult populations (employees, university students). However, PsyCap’s influence on these outcomes in young people is unclear. The present exploratory study investigated changes in self-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms (measured via the RCADS-SV) and subjective wellbeing (measured by the Flourishing Scale) from pre-pandemic levels to 3 months into the pandemic and explored gender differences at each time point in a sample of Australian Year 10 students (N = 56, Mage = 14.93 years, SD = 0.50, 51.8% male). The longitudinal predictive role of baseline PsyCap on follow-up assessments of anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms and flourishing were also examined. There were no significant changes in levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms between the timepoints, but flourishing significantly declined from T1 to T2. Baseline PsyCap was not a significant predictor of T2 anxiety and depressive symptoms but was a significant predictor of T2 flourishing. Further, different baseline HERO constructs predicted T2 mental health symptoms and flourishing. Future larger studies building on the current preliminary findings investigating the roles of student PsyCap, mental health and subjective wellbeing are warranted to better understand these constructs in the COVID-19 era and beyond.

Belongingness is a key factor in the psychological development and school adjustment of children and adolescents. Going beyond the existing literature, the present study evaluated the association between two sources of belongingness, namely sense of belonging at school (SOBAS) and on social media (SOBOSM), and both psychological maladjustment and educational achievement. Sample consisted of 698 early-to-late adolescents (52.3% female, mean age = 13.79 ± 2.09). Both SOBAS and SOBOSM showed negative direct associations with psychological maladjustment. SOBOSM showed a negative direct association with educational achievement. Social media addiction mediated the links between both SOBAS and SOBOSM and psychological maladjustment and education achievement. Overall, findings suggest that adolescents reporting high sense of belonging both at school and on social media may at lower risk for psychological maladjustment. However, adolescents reporting low SOBAS and high SOBOSM may also be a greater risk of SMA, possibly impacting their psychological health and school adjustement.

Parenting behaviour and rearing style contribute to the intergenerational relationship between parental and child anxiety. Current psychological interventions for child anxiety typically do not adequately address parental mental health, parenting behaviours or the parent–child relationship. The current pilot study examines the effectiveness of a mindful parenting intervention (MPI) for parents of young children with clinical anxiety. It was hypothesised that the intervention would be associated with improvements in parental stress, mental health, and mindfulness, and a reduction in child clinical anxiety symptoms. Twenty-one parents of children aged 3–7 years diagnosed with anxiety disorders participated in an 8-week group MPI program that aimed to increase their intentional moment to moment awareness of the parent–child relationship. Parental (anxiety, depression, hostility, stress, burden, mindfulness, mindful parenting) and child (anxiety diagnoses, anxiety severity, comorbidities) outcomes were assessed at pre- and post-intervention, and at 3-month follow-up. Parents reported a significant increase in mindful parenting and a significant reduction in parent–child dysfunctional interaction, but no change in mental health symptoms. There was a significant reduction in parent-rated child anxiety symptoms, severity of child anxiety diagnosis and number of comorbid diagnoses at post and 3-month follow-up. Limitations include a lack of waitlist control, small sample size, and participants were largely mothers, from intact families and highly educated. There was attrition of 43% and outcomes were predominantly self-report. MPIs offer a novel and potentially effective method of increasing mindful parenting, decreasing dysfunctional parent–child interactions, reducing parenting stress and might also be an effective early intervention for indirectly decreasing young children’s clinical anxiety symptoms. Larger-scale controlled trials of MPIs are needed.