James Neill

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Canberra

Prevention programs that focus on enhancing positive body image may improve health and well-being in young people. Body image flexibility is a promising prevention approach, although its application with youth has yet to be comprehensively investigated. This systematic review evaluated the effectiveness of body image flexibility interventions among...

Although positive relationships between nature and wellbeing are well-established, there is a lack of applied research about nature-based community wellbeing programs in Australia. During 2021–2022, Landcare ACT conducted a pilot Wellbeing through Nature program which aimed to improve mental health, social connectedness, and quality of life via Lan...

This case study describes a collaborative online authoring project in which undergraduate students co-produce open educational resources as a learning and assessment exercise. Over 1,500 chapters and videos about how psychological science can improve people’s motivational and emotional lives have been co-created. Wikiversity provides a simple and p...

Body image flexibility shows promise for understanding positive body image in young people. However, its adaptive functions remain unclear due to the lack of youth-oriented models and existing focus on inflexibility in unidimensional measures. This study developed a measure of body image flexibility and inflexibility for youth by adapting the Multi...

Background Psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms, is increasingly discussed in terms of its psychotherapeutic potential; however, little is known about community attitudes towards psilocybin assisted therapy (PAT). Aims To address the question: What are the public's attitudes towards psilocybin and psilocybin-assisted therapy? A...

Student violence directed at school educators appears to be increasing, thus it is important to identify practical strategies that educators use to prevent and cope with occupational violence. This observational study surveyed 369 government primary school staff in the Australian Capital Territory. Sixty per cent of respondents reported abusive lan...

Background Children and adolescents recovering from burn injury are at heightened risk of psychosocial problems. An integrative form of psychosocial intervention is burn camp. However, evidence about burn camp effectiveness is equivocal. Objectives This study examined the role of therapeutic camp experiences in the recovery journeys of children an...

Adolescence involves significant developmental changes and challenges including heightened body image concerns. However, there is limited research on adaptive ways of responding to perceived threats to body image. This study uses body image flexibility, derived from contextual behavioral perspectives, and coping theories to explore young people’s r...

This is an unusual article in that it brings together the perspectives of many on this journal’s editorial board, around the issue of contending with COVID-19. Twenty statements showcase a range of thoughts and experiences, highlighting the differences and similarities in the way the pandemic is impacting on the educational practice of outdoor and...

This is an unusual article in that it brings together the perspectives of many on this journal’s editorial board, around the issue of contending with COVID-19. Twenty statements showcase a range of thoughts and experiences, highlighting the differences and similarities in the way the pandemic is impacting on the educational practice of outdoor and...

Based on the social-cognitive information processing model and the theory of normative beliefs, this study tests if gamers normalise aggression in games, and whether these normative beliefs explain their aggressive behaviour in games. Experimental cross sectional, worldwide data was collected through an online survey of gamers (N = 1646). Participa...

Exposure to ideal body types in the media has been consistently linked to reduced body satisfaction. Images posted on social networking sites may also impact body satisfaction by portraying idealised standards of physical attractiveness promoted by peers. This study draws on self-determination theory to examine whether satisfaction of basic psychol...

This paper describes psychological theory about stress, coping, and psychological resilience, and considers how coping strategies can help develop resilience in the context of outdoor education. Outdoor education programs often aim to develop psychological resilience through structured challenging and reflective experiences. Use of coping strategie...

The increasing cultural diversity within tertiary education and workplace environments requires students and graduates to be knowledgeable and effective in cross-cultural adjustment and managing potential acculturative stress. One of the ways to increase their cross-cultural adjustment is via cross-cultural training (CCT). Given the predominantly b...

The result of a 2 year project (2010-2012) engaging in the University of Canberra's review of their Intellectual Property policy. Key points: 1. Academics and staff, students and partners retain ownership of their intellectual property 2. Intellectual property is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution copyright license, with an opt-out pr...

An internationalised curriculum could better prepare graduates for globalising and increasingly culturally diverse workplaces. There is a need to provide students with intercultural learning opportunities at home because many students do not have access to study abroad opportunities. This paper describes curriculum changes designed to enhance stude...

Adventure therapy offers a prevention, early intervention, and treatment modality for people with behavioural, psychological, and psychosocial issues. It can appeal to youth-at-risk who are often less responsive to traditional psychotherapeutic interventions. This study evaluated Wilderness Adventure Therapy (WAT) outcomes based on participants’ pr...

In this study, we describe characteristics of outdoor adventure interventions (OAIs) that aim to address problem behaviors in young people in Australia. A national online survey was completed by 98 program leaders and 24 program managers. OAIs for youth in Australia are diverse, but typically incorporate several days in the outdoors, during which p...

This study used mixed methods to examine the effects of an Australian outdoor adventure intervention on youth-at-risks' life effectiveness, mental health, and behavioural functioning. The sample consisted of 53 adolescents who completed a Catalyst program conducted by the Queensland Police-Citizens Youth Welfare Association, a non-profit organisati...

http://www.danielbowen.com.au/meta-analysis This study reports on a meta-analytic review of 197 studies of adventure therapy participant outcomes (2,908 effect sizes, 206 unique samples). The short-term effect size for adventure therapy was moderate (g = .47) and larger than for alternative (.14) and no treatment (.08) comparison groups. There was...

This article describes a pilot evaluation involving teaching and learning activities focussed on developing intercultural competencies in an undergraduate psychology unit. Specifically, first year psychology students engaged in two tasks derived from the alliance building and cultural mapping methods of an existing intercultural training resource—t...

Background: In Australia, the Federal government's agenda to increase clinical training places to address the forecast shortfall of nurses is driving innovation in clinical education. A student leadership model of clinical education, named the Student Nurse Led Ward model, was designed for the aged care context to provide a high number of clinical...

Fostering intercultural perspectives and developing intercultural competence are vital for internationalising the curriculum, and preparing all students for education and work in culturally diverse settings. This presentation outlines and discusses the rationale, processes and findings of a current action research project funded by the Australian L...

Networked technologies combined with the ethics of openness offer unprecedented opportunities for improving access to digital information, facilitating involvement, and helping researchers to address questions in new and resourceful ways[1]. For many universities, however, 'eResearch' is focused on establishing digital repositories for storing and...

If there is technological advance without social advance, there is, almost automatically, an increase in human misery. Michael Harrington We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works. Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt (2002) The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an effic...

What gets measured gets done. If you don’t measure results, you can’t tell success from failure. If you can’t see success, you can’t reward it. If you can’t reward success, you’re probably rewarding failure. If you can’t see success, you can’t learn from it. If you can’t recognize failure, you can’t correct it. If you can demonstrate results, you c...

A presentation to the 2010 Annual General Meeting of Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA) where James and Leigh explained the basis for which they were proposing that the University of Canberra become a place of open education and research. http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Open_education_and_research_at_the_University_of_Canberra

ObjectiveThe study aimed to explore the short-term effects of “green exercise” on state anxiety and to examine the influence of exercise type, intensity, duration, and degree of greenness.MethodA quasi-experimental design involved eight pre-existing outdoor exercise groups (N = 101) who completed pre- and post-exercise questionnaires.ResultsResults...

Outdoor programs often intentionally provide a different culture and the challenge of working out how to adapt. Failure to adapt, however, can cause symptoms of culture shock, including homesickness, negative personal behavior, and interpersonal conflict. This article links cross-cultural and outdoor programming literature and provides case example...

The present study investigated the dishonest academic behaviours of Australian university students ( N = 954) and their relationships with demographic factors, academic policy advised to students, academic self-efficacy, and academic orientation. It was hypothesised that higher levels of dishonesty would be associated with low learning-orientation,...

This article summarizes evidence from meta-analyses of outdoor education, psychotherapy, and education which can he used to help determine the relative efficacy of adventure therapy programs. The major outdoor education meta-analysis by Hattie, Marsh, Neill, and Richards (1997) cites an effect size of .34 for immediate program effectiveness. Meta-a...

The role of a journal is to facilitate the development of knowledge in a field of inquiry. This article reviews the history, authorship and content of the first five years of the Australian Journal of Outdoor Education (AJOE). Although it experienced some early growing pains, the AJOE has become recognised as a leading journal in the international...

This study investigated the relationship between adolescents' self-expressed identification with Australia and changes in measures of personal development following an outdoor education program. Social identity theory and stereotype threat theory provided a theoretical framework for the study. Three groups of high school students (high, medium, and...

This paper analyzes a holistic method of experiential program design, ?dramaturgy.? Dramaturgy, a theatre term, involves the development of themes and is characterized by the dramaturgy wave, which intertwines a wide variety of social, physical, creative, and reflective ?games.? The dramaturgy aims to enhance the challenge to participants in ways o...

1 Adventure education philosophers have argued that controlled exposure to challenge can enhance participants' psychological resilience. This study supports this claim, demonstrating significantly greater gains in resilience for 41 young adults participating in 22-day Outward Bound programs than in a control group. Resilience describes a psychologi...

Social support, a key factor in determining physical and mental health, strongly predicted changes in outdoor adventure participants' psychological resilience. The support received from the least supportive person best predicted gains in resilience. Outdoor education programs should provide a learning environment that is both challenging and suppor...

Adventure education philosophers have argued that controlled exposure to challenge can enhance participants' psychological resilience. This study supports this claim, demonstrating significantly greater gains in psychological resilience for 41 young adults participating in 22-day Outward Bound programs than in a control group. All Outward Bound par...

Ostroff, Woolverton, Berry, and Lesko in 1996 examined the adolescent subsample of Veit and Ware's 1983 normative data for the Mental Health Inventory and recommended a two-factor rather than the original five-factor model for the assessment of adolescents' mental health. Analysis of a 30-item version with a new independent sample of 878 adolescent...

There is very little evidence about the effects of Western outdoor education programs on non-Western participants. This study involved an experimental group of low-achieving Japanese students who participated in an Australian outdoor education program (N=32) and a control group of similar students who remained at school in Japan (N=40). The 22-day...

As the empirical literature about the effects of outdoor education grows, it is important that emerging trends are reviewed and the implications for practice discussed. Traditional reviews of the literature have created impressionistic narratives of the research evidence. An alternative approach is to use 'meta-analysis' which is a way of combining...

The coping responses of 251 Australian high school students involved in outdoor education programs were examined using a modified version of the Adolescent Coping Scale (ACS). Coping includes all strategies, whether cognitive, emotional, or physical, that a person uses to negotiate a stable balance between the internal psychological state and exter...

The purpose of this meta-analysis is to examine the effects of adventure programs on a diverse array of outcomes such as self concept, locus of control, and leadership. The meta-analysis was based on 1,728 effect sizes drawn from 151 unique samples from 96 studies, and the average effect size at the end of the programs was .34. In a remarkable cont...

As the literature about outdoor education grows, it is important that emerging trends are reviewed and the implications for practice discussed. Gender is arguably the most ubiquitous individual difference, and is attracting considerable interest in the outdoor education field. In spite of this trend, critical reviews of the anecdotal and research l...

An undergraduate class of 37 American outdoor education students were involved in a one-day "Mystery Adventure". The program design was based on a holistic 'wave theory' model, as described by Martin (2001) in the context of Outward Bound program design in the Czech Republic. The one-day Mystery Adventure was based in a small, rural town and involv...