Duc-Hoi Dinh

This study investigated the prevalence of mental health symptoms, psychological strengths and difficulties, and substance use among Vietnamese secondary school students, and examined the relationships among these variables. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1,062 students in grades 6 to 9 using standardized self-report instruments, including the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), and the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, multiple regression, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The results showed that more than half of the students reported normal emotional states, although anxiety symptoms were more common than depression and stress. Peer problems were the most frequently reported psychological difficulty, and alcohol use was the most common substance use behavior. The SDQ scores were moderately correlated with DASS (r = 0.557) and PCL-5 (r = 0.563), while PCL-5 had a strong correlation with DASS (r = 0.761, p < 0.001). Regression analysis showed that both SDQ (B = 0.385, p < 0.001) and PCL-5 (B = 0.440, p < 0.001) significantly predicted DASS scores. ROC analysis indicated excellent discrimination (AUC = 0.983, 95% CI [0.976, 0.989]) with a school screening cut-off value of 28.5 (sensitivity = 0.955; specificity = 0.933). Because the reference classification was based on the same PCL-5 items, these results should be interpreted as evidence of internal consistency and preliminary screening usefulness rather than diagnostic validity against an independent clinical standard. Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of integrating school-based mental health screening into national education and health programs, strengthening collaboration between teachers and counselors, and developing preventive interventions that address adolescents’ psychosocial contexts.

To successfully embed the social-emotionallearning (SEL) model in the education sector, pre-service teachers must prepare for social-emotional competence (SEC). Unfortunately, studies on how pre-service teachers were trained and developed their SEC before practicing the SEL model in the teaching profession are lacking. This study focuses on discovering how to train and develop SEC for pre-service teachers within the framework of teacher undergraduate training programs in Vietnam, a developing country in Southeast Asia. We employed a convergent parallel mixed-method approach, utilizing both quantitative data (n=650) and qualitative data (n=23), which were subsequently integrated during the interpretation phase to derive comprehensive results. Our findings revealed that the current pre-service teachers had an average level of SEC, which was limited by: i) confusion in understanding SEC and SEL concepts; ii) the lack of professional supervision in undergraduate training; and iii) the unguaranteed need to foster SEC self-development and SEL-based practice training courses. These themes highlight the need to change the administrative policy in undergraduate teacher training programs to support and supervise the development of pre-service teachers’ SEL-based knowledge and practice in developing countries.

Cyberbullying is a form of violence that has been present in schools for a long time and negatively impacts the mental health of students. Different countries have different strategies for avoiding cyberbullying. However, research on school-based cyberbullying prevention is limited in Southeast Asian developing countries. This study aims to explore the current implementation of school-based cyberbullying prevention in public schools in a developing country. The framework of prevention programs is based on three aspects: (1) Developing curricula on how to behave when being a victim of cyberbullying. (2) Strengthening the students' skills to deal with cyberbullying. (3) Promulgating specific provisions in the legal document on handling cyberbullying. School-based cyberbullying prevention among students in public schools is currently a research gap because of the limitations in the management of students using the internet and educational policies. This is a cross-sectional study that surveyed 400 participants who are Vietnamese teachers, administrators and school psychologists. The results show that the limitations of school-based cyberbullying prevention for Vietnamese students include professional knowledge, practical experience and personnel in charge of this work. This constraint has resulted in an upsurge in incidents of cyberbullying in Vietnam. The findings add to the important evidence on cyberbullying prevention in a developing country that is working to research and develop an appropriate school-based cyberbullying prevention strategy.

Introduction: With the advantage of the restructured education in Vietnam, the social-emotional learning (SEL) framework has been gradually piloting applied into the educational curriculum. However, the SEL integration is only effective in primary school. Methods: This study applied qualitative phenomenological research, which used in-depth interviews with students and core teachers who have experienced SEL from previous studies to explore and explain the SEL integration is not successful at the secondary level. Findings: Four findings showed the current challenges of SEL’s integration in Vietnamese educational curriculum: 1) the incompatibility between the current curriculum and the teachers’ pedagogical capacity; 2) the perceived difficulties in integrating SEL into educational activities; 3) the limited focus on understanding the students’ psychology; and 4) students cannot develop their social-emotional competence. Discussion: When the challenges can be solved, corresponding to the solutions discussed, can the SEL framework be properly integrated into Vietnamese education, as well as designing an integrated continuous SEL-orientated curriculum across school levels, meeting the requirements of the new educational curriculum.