Centre for Positive Psychology and Education

Louise Ellis is a registered Psychologist and a full member of the Australian Psychological Society whose research interests include mental health, self-concept, peer support, and learning difficulties and disabilities. Louise completed her PhD at the SELF Research Centre in 2004. Her thesis involved a large-scale, multi-method examination that critically tested the impact of widely-implemented peer-support program that aimed to assist Year 7 student through their secondary school education. Louise is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, where she is involved in several major research projects that investigate issues related to mental health, technology and disability.

Thesis title

Peers helping peers: the effectiveness of a peer support program in enhancing self-concept and other desirable outcomes

Abstract

Research suggests that the transition to adolescence and secondary school can be challenging and potentially disruptive to adolescent functioning. Large-scale studies on the effectiveness of peer support programs are currently lacking and those that have been conducted are compromised by methodological problems. The primary purpose of this research was to 1/ identify psychometrically sound measurement instruments for use with secondary school students; 2/ test the impact of the peer support program on espoused program outcomes and other aspects of students' psychological well-being and adjustment to the secondary schooling context; 3/ extend previous research by examining the effects of serving as a peer support leader on leadership ability and other psychological constructs; and 4/ identify students' perceptions of the impact, strengths and weaknesses of the program in order to further strengthen peer support intervention design. The findings have important implications for the provision of programs and techniques employed to address students' problems following the transition to adolescence and secondary school. In particular, they suggest that peer support programs have the potential to make a significant contribution to schools' efforts to orchestrate positive outcomes, not only for early adolescents, but also for older students who implement the program

Thesis submission date

2004

Supervisors

Professor Herb Marsh & Professor Rhonda Craven

Publications

Ellis, L.A., Marsh, H.W. & Craven, R.G. (2009) Addressing the Challenges Faced by Early Adolescents: A Mixed-Method Evaluation of the Benefits of Peer Support. American Journal of Community Psychology, 44(1-2), 54-75.

Ellis, L.A., Wheldall, K. & Beaman (2007) The research locus and conceptual basis for MULTLIT: Why we do what we do. Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, 12(2), 61-65.

Ellis, L.A. (2005) Revisiting the educational psychology research on educating students with learning difficulties. Australian Education Review, 48, 1-66.

Marsh, H.W., Ellis, L.A., Parada, R.H., Richards, G. & Heubeck, B.G. (2005) A short version of the Self Description Questionnaire II: Operationalizing criteria for short-term evaluation with new applications of confirmatory factor analyses. Psychological Assessment, 17(1), 81-102.

Ellis, L.A., Marsh, H.W. & Craven, R.G. (2005) Navigating the transition to adolescence and secondary school: A critical evaluation of the impact of peer support. In H.W. Marsh, R.G. Craven & D. McInerney (Eds), New Frontiers in Self Research. International Advances in Self Research, Vol. 2. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.

Marsh, H.W., Ellis, L.A. & Craven, R.G. (2002) How do preschool children feel about themselves: Unravelling measurement and multidimensional self-concept structure. Developmental Psychology, 38, 376-393.