Simon C. Hunter

Simon C. Hunter
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Simon verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Verified
Simon verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Glasgow Caledonian University | GCU · Department of Psychology and Allied Health Sciences

PhD

About

125
Publications
185,294
Reads
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3,739
Citations
Introduction
Simon C. Hunter is a Professor of Applied Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. He can be contacted via simon.hunter[at]gcu.ac.uk
Additional affiliations
May 2020 - present
Glasgow Caledonian University
Position
  • Professor
June 2004 - April 2020
University of Strathclyde
Position
  • Professor (Associate)
Education
July 2000 - May 2004
University of Strathclyde
Field of study
  • Psychology
September 1998 - August 1999
University of Strathclyde
Field of study
  • Psychology
September 1993 - June 1997
University of Strathclyde
Field of study
  • Psychology

Publications

Publications (125)
Article
Full-text available
  Intervention strategies and developmental models of stress have been criticized for failing to integrate social psychological variables. This study investigates both self-referential cognitive mediators (perceived threat and control) and a social psychological moderator (ethnic/religious identity) of the effect of peer-victimization upon depressi...
Article
Using a national sample of 7,533 U.S. adolescents in grades 6-10, the present study compares the social-ecological correlates of face-to-face and cyberbullying victimization. Results indicate that younger age, male sex, hours spent on social media, family SES (individual context), parental monitoring (family context), positive feelings about school...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Sexting is a new way to explore sexuality among adolescents that can be associated with bullying behaviors. Previous studies have focused on peer‐victimization but relationships between bullying and different forms of sexting have not been explored. This study evaluates the reciprocal relationships between the perpetration of tradition...
Article
Full-text available
The open science movement has developed out of growing concerns over the scientific standard of published academic research and a perception that science is in crisis (the “replication crisis”). Bullying research sits within this scientific family and without taking a full part in discussions risks falling behind. Open science practices can inform...
Article
Full-text available
Background The impact of COVID‐19 (SARS‐CoV‐2) pandemic school lockdowns on the mental health problems and feelings of loneliness of adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) is hypothesized to be greater than that of their non‐NDD peers. This two and a half year longitudinal study compared changes in the mental health and loneliness of...
Article
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People living with severe and enduring mental illnesses experience stigma and discrimination from multiple sources in society. Internalization of negative cultural messages about one’s experience of mental illness can lead to negative outcomes such as reduced self-esteem and help-seeking behaviors. Understanding whether these experiences differ acr...
Article
Objective The objective of this study is to make the distinction between courtesy stigma and parent‐blame, two related but unique forms of judgment, and to explore the consequence of courtesy stigma and parent‐blame. Background Having a child who uses substances has been linked to numerous adverse mental and physical health implications for family...
Article
Hate-motivated behavior (HMB) ranges from microaggressions to criminal acts and is a public health concern with consequences for the physical and mental well-being of individuals, families, and communities. The Hate-Motivated Behavior Checklist (HMBC) was developed with the goal of advancing the measurement of HMB perpetration. To provide insights...
Article
Background Hate-motivated behaviour (HMB) ranges from microaggressions to criminal acts and is a public health concern with wide-ranging consequences. Aims The current study aimed to examine the mental health correlates of HMB perpetration, victimisation and co-occurring victimisation/perpetration. Methods Participants ( n = 447) completed an onl...
Article
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There is a need to identify the outcomes of changes in loneliness during adolescence, and to consider this within a multidimensional framework of loneliness. This study considered the effects of different trajectories of change in Isolation Loneliness and in Friendship Loneliness upon both positive wellbeing and symptoms of depression. To achieve t...
Article
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The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had wide-ranging negative impacts on mental health. The pandemic also placed extraordinary strain on frontline workers who were required to continue working and putting themselves at risk to provide essential services at a time when their normal support mechanisms may not have been available. This paper presents...
Article
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To date, it remains unknown which psychosocial determinants identified by several leading behavior change theories are associated with different sleep parameters among adolescents. Therefore, this study investigates whether changes in knowledge about healthy sleep, attitude toward healthy sleep and going to bed on time, self-efficacy to engage in h...
Article
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There is a need to increase understanding of the effectiveness of bystander programmes targeting gender-based violence in the United Kingdom. There is also a need to utilise a robust theoretical models of decision-making while doing so. Changes were examined in bystanders’ attitudes, beliefs, motivations towards intervening, and intervention behavi...
Preprint
AimsThis systematic review assessed the quality of two measures of perceived stigma in people with addictions: the Perceived Stigma of Addiction Scale (PSAS) and the Alcohol Adapted Perceived Devaluation-Discrimination Scale (AA-PDD) (Glass et al., 2013; Luoma et al., 2010). The aim was to identify the patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) that b...
Article
Full-text available
Gender-based violence is a global public health issue and major human rights concern. It is also a type of violence that is disproportionately experienced by women and girls. This study is the first to examine multiple implementation process (dosage, fidelity, and adaptation) effects on changes in anticipated outcomes of a school-based bystander pr...
Article
Full-text available
Background Stigma and trust influence how adolescents seek support for mental illness, though it is unclear how these influence their decisions to approach a range of potential sources of support. Moreover, even less is known about the ways in which these issues are related when a friend discloses symptoms of mental illness. Objective The study’s...
Preprint
Background Healthcare professionals’ (HPs) stigma toward people with addictions (PWAs) acts as a barrier to wellness and quality of care for this population (Luoma et al., 2014). The current review will analyse studies assessing HPs’ stigmatised attitudes towards PWAs to drugs and/or alcohol. It will also explore factors that cause or influence HPs...
Preprint
AimsThere is no agreed-upon terminology which researchers, practitioners and others can use to appropriately describe people with addictions in ways that are not stigmatising. This study therefore aimed to identify the terminology that should be used to refer to people with addictions according to members of that population and accounting for the e...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this study was to produce a short-form measure of loneliness and assesses its prediction of depressive symptoms relative to a comprehensive measure. Western Australian adolescents completed the Friendship Related Loneliness and Isolation subscales of the Perth Aloneness Scale (PALs) three times over 18 months (T 1 n = 1538; T 2, n =...
Article
Full-text available
Adolescence is the peak period for loneliness. Now a ubiquitous part of the adolescent landscape, electronic screens may provide avenues for ameliorating feelings of loneliness. Conversely, they may act as risk factors for the development of such feelings. Although cross-sectional studies to date have investigated the relationship between screen us...
Article
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This study augmented the Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) to assess reactive and deliberative decision‐making underpinning bystander intervention in gender‐based violence contexts. There were 2079 participants (50% male, 49% female, and 1% unreported), aged 11–15 years old (M = 12.32, SD = 0.91), attending 19 secondary schools across Scotland. Par...
Article
Full-text available
Peer-victimization is a frequent experience for many children and adolescents. Accurate measurement of peer-victimization is essential for better understanding such experiences and informing intervention work. While many peer-victimization and bullying scales exist, they often lack important psychometric information. The short form of the Personal...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Longitudinal research examining the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) school closures on the mental health of adolescents is scarce. Prolonged periods of physical and social isolation because of such restrictions may have impacted heavily on adolescents’ mental health and loneliness. Methods The current study addresses a m...
Article
Full-text available
Young people struggle to seek help for their mental health, despite having different resources available. As the coping process is very complex, and elements such as trust and availability of resources have been said to influence it, this study aimed to understand how young people cope with their own or a friend’s symptoms of poor mental health. El...
Preprint
Full-text available
The urgency to reduce knife carrying has been recognised by police services within Scotland and has been addressed by initiatives such as the sharing of knife seizure images on media outlets. This study sought to explore young peoples’ views on the use of knife seizure images as a deterrent to carrying knives by using comparative individual intervi...
Article
Full-text available
Underpinned by the transactional model of stress (Lazarus and Folkman in Stress, appraisal, and coping, Springer, Berlin, 1984), the aim of this pre-registered study was to test the role of cognitive appraisals (threat, challenge, control, blame, and perceived social support) in the longitudinal relationship between peer-victimization and depressiv...
Article
Full-text available
Tools to assess worry among adolescents exist but do not capture the content of worries. This study reports on the development of a brief, psychometrically sound measure of worry for use with adolescents. Phase 1 involved identification of 27 potential items from existing instruments as well as item generation identified in interviews with students...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the extent to which active and passive sexting behaviors are associated with family-, school-, peer-, and romantic-level variables. Young people ( N = 3,322; 49.1% female, 48.3% male, 2.6% other) aged 11 to 15 years old ( M = 12.84, SD = 0.89) took part, and all attended mainstream secondary schools in Scotland. Participants com...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Self-stigma (the internalisation of negative stereotypes) is known to reduce help-seeking behaviours and treatment adherence in people who have a mental illness, resulting in worsening health outcomes. Moreover, self-stigma diminishes self-esteem and self-efficacy, and leads to higher levels of depression. Half of all lifetime cases of...
Article
Background: The study aims to examine the rate of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among White, African American, and Latino adolescents and whether racial/ethnic bullying subtypes (victim-only, bullies-only, and bully/victim) are related to alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use. Methods: We used data from the 2009-2010 Health Behaviour in School...
Article
Purpose To address the gap in interventions for improving sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY; e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth) health, we tested the feasibility of a game-based intervention for increasing help-seeking, productive coping skills, resource knowledge/use, and well-being. Methods We conducted a 2-arm randomized...
Article
Full-text available
Background and aims: Social media use has become a ubiquitous part of society, with 3.8 billion users worldwide. While research has shown that there are positive aspects to social media engagement (e.g. feelings of social connectedness and wellbeing), much of the focus has been on the negative mental health outcomes which are associated with exces...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: The psychometric properties of the Perth A-loneness Scale (PALs) have been extensively validated using classical test theory, but to date no studies have applied a Rasch analysis. The purpose of this study was to validate the PALs four subscales, using Rasch analysis. Methods: Responses from 1484 adolescents (58% female, mean age = 12.8...
Preprint
Full-text available
Underpinned by the transactional model of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), the aim of this pre-registered study was to test the role of cognitive appraisals (threat, challenge, control, blame, and perceived social support) in the longitudinal relationship between peer-victimization and depressive symptomatology. Measures of peer-victimization, cog...
Preprint
Full-text available
The open science movement has developed out of growing concerns over the scientific standard of published academic research and a perception that science is in crisis (the "replication crisis"). Bullying research sits within this scientific family and without taking a full part in discussions risks falling behind. Open science practices can inform...
Article
Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) have higher rates of bullying than their heterosexual peers and must disproportionately cope with bullying victimization. The purpose of this research is to highlight various coping strategies employed by SGMY. We conducted 20 cross-sectional, semi-structured online interviews with SGMY about their bullying e...
Article
Full-text available
Mental well-being protects against the emergence of suicidal thoughts. However, it is not clear whether these findings extend to self-harm thoughts and behaviors irrespective of intent during adolescence-or why this relationship exists. The current study aimed to test predictions-informed by the integrated motivational-volitional (IMV) model of sui...
Preprint
Conflicting results from published school-based anti-bullying initiatives have prompted psychologists to suggest that advances in tackling bullying will rely upon developing a greater understanding of the psychological processes underpinning bullying behaviour. This thesis aimed to address this issue by attempting to clarify the coping processes en...
Article
Full-text available
The heightened levels of peer relationship difficulties associated with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) potentially predispose adolescents to feelings of loneliness and depressive symptoms. The current study explores whether feelings of loneliness mediate the effects of ADHD on depressive symptoms. Eighty-four adolescents (Mage = 13...
Article
Full-text available
Debates concerning the impacts of screen time are widespread. Existing research presents mixed findings, and lacks longitudinal evidence for any causal or long-term effects. We present a critical account of the current shortcomings of the screen time literature. These include poor conceptualisation, the use of non-standardised measures that are pre...
Preprint
Debates concerning the impacts of screen-time are widespread. Existing research presents mixed findings, and lacks longitudinal evidence for any causal or long-term effects. We present a critical account of the current shortcomings of the screen-time literature. These include: poor conceptualisation, the use of non-standardised measures that are pr...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of the study was to test the relationship between experiences of being bullied, cyberbullied, and mental health difficulties, and whether these relationships are moderated by perceived social support and gender. Data were collected from 3737 year 8 pupils (aged 12 and 13 years; 50.1% male) using an online questionnaire. Measures of bullying...
Article
Full-text available
Background Mental illness stigma has serious psychological and social consequences for adults, and remains a significant barrier to help-seeking. The aim of this review was to synthesise findings from qualitative and quantitative studies investigating the psychosocial effects of mental illness stigma in youth with mental health problems who access...
Article
Bullying includes intention of harm, repetitiveness and power imbalance, and is associated with a wide‐range of indices of short‐ and long‐term maladjustment. Both being a victim and being a bully are risk factors. The participant role model broadens the scope of direct involvement in bullying by including the parts played by other peers who may no...
Article
Social and emotional competencies have gained importance given their relation with high prosocial behavior and low violence. Social Networking Sites have become a key context for adolescents’ interpersonal relationships. Thus, it could be useful to discover if social and emotional competencies are expressed differently when using electronic devices...
Article
Objective: An individual’s own personality traits are powerful predictors of their health outcomes (actor effects). However, the effect of personality on health may also occur at an interpersonal level, whereby the personalities of people close to the individual also affect his or her health outcomes (partner effects). Our objective was to examine...
Article
Objectives: Social scientists have devoted much theoretical and empirical attention to studying the correlates of bullying perpetration and victimization. Much less attention has been devoted to studying race differences in the correlates of bullying behaviors despite the importance of these when designing effective and focused prevention and inter...
Article
The Big Five personality traits are powerful predictors of health and longevity. However, few studies have addressed partner effects of personality on health, whereby the personalities of people close to us affect our health. The current study examined the partner effects of Big Five traits on health behaviours, mood, and quality of life in romanti...
Article
Full-text available
Background and objectives In adult populations, rumination and executive control impairments have been highlighted as vulnerability factors for later depression and rumination as a whole construct has recently been linked to lower executive control. However, research with adolescent populations is limited and little is known developmentally of the...
Article
Full-text available
Background Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY; eg, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth) experience myriad substance use and mental health disparities compared with their cisgender (nontransgender) heterosexual peers. Despite much research showing these disparities are driven by experiences of bullying and cyberbullying victimization,...
Article
Full-text available
Adolescents are constantly connected with each other and the digital landscape through a myriad of screen media devices. Unprecedented access to the wider world and hence a variety of activities, particularly since the introduction of mobile technology, has given rise to questions regarding the impact of this changing media environment on the menta...
Preprint
Full-text available
BACKGROUND Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY; eg, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth) experience myriad substance use and mental health disparities compared with their cisgender (nontransgender) heterosexual peers. Despite much research showing these disparities are driven by experiences of bullying and cyberbullying victimization,...
Article
Full-text available
Extraversion is comprised of two main components of affiliation and agency. Affiliative and agentic extraversion have been found to predict positive activation in response to appetitive stimuli, and affiliative extraversion also predicts warmth-affection in response to affiliative stimuli. The aim of this study was to test whether cognitive apprais...
Article
Full-text available
Study objectives: Although converging evidence has identified sleep problems as robust predictors of suicidal ideation in young people, the psychological processes driving these associations are not yet known. The current study aimed to test predictions, informed by the Integrated Motivational-Volitional (IMV) Model of Suicidal Behavior, concernin...
Article
Full-text available
Background: High quality, longitudinal data describing young people's screen use across a number of distinct forms of screen activity is missing from the literature. This study tracked multiple screen use activities (passive screen use, gaming, social networking, web searching) amongst 10- to 17-year-old adolescents across 24 months. Methods: Th...
Presentation
Full-text available
Seminar introducing benefits of longitudinal research designs, including ability to carry out cross-lagged panel analyses, APIM analyses, and growth curve estimation. Illustrated with published research examples from projects I have been involved in.
Article
Full-text available
Underpinned by the transactional model of stress (TMS), this systematic review synthesizes research testing the role of primary and secondary appraisals in the relationship between peer victimization and adjustment. A comprehensive literature search was undertaken and 23 articles were included in the review. Primary appraisals of threat and control...
Article
Full-text available
The CaR-FA-X model (Williams et al., 2007), or capture and rumination (CaR), functional avoidance (FA), and impaired executive control (X), is a model of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM). Two mechanisms of the model, rumination and executive control, were examined in isolation and in interaction in order to investigate OGM over time. Acros...
Article
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This study examined the association and directionality of effect between mental wellbeing and depressive symptoms in Australian adolescents. Data were collected on two occasions 21 months apart. At Time 1, 1,762 10- to 14-year-old adolescents from a range of socio-economic status areas participated. At Time 2 (T2), 1,575 participated again. On both...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Although public health concerns have been raised regarding the detrimental health effects of increasing rates of electronic screen use among adolescents, such effects have been small. Instruments currently available tend to be lengthy, have a clinical research focus, and assess young people's screen use on specific screen-based activit...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The present study sought to identify the structure of South Korean student bully and victim groups based upon longitudinal data, and the association of groups with social-ecological based factors at the individual (age, sex, father and mothers’ educational status, household income, aggression, depression, smoking, drinking, type of famil...
Article
Full-text available
Children with developmental delays (DD) are at risk for developing behavior problems. Research suggests that parents’ causal attributions for child behavior are related to parenting. This study investigated this association in parents of children with DD compared to parents of typically developing (TD) children. It specifically focused on attributi...
Article
Introduction Converging evidence identifies sleep disturbance as an evidence-based risk factor for suicidal behaviour. This relationship has not yet been systematically evaluated in association with a history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Research is warranted among adolescents given increased vulnerability to sleep disturbances and high risk...
Article
Full-text available
The CaR–FA–X model [Williams, J. M. G., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., Hermans, D., Raes, F., Watkins, E., … Dalgleish, T. (2007). Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 122–148. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.122] is the most prominent and comprehensive model of overgeneral autobiographical memory (OGM)...
Chapter
Full-text available
School bullying is a serious social problem, which has received widespread public, media, and research attention over the years. The first study of bullying was published in 1969 by a school physician named P. P. Heinemann (Olweus, 1999), which was subsequently followed by extensive empirical inquiry since the 1970s in Scandinavia led by Dan Olweus...
Article
Full-text available
This study assessed the concurrent and prospective associations between psychosocial adjustment and four humor styles, two of which are adaptive (affiliative, self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive, self-defeating). Participants were 1,234 adolescents (52% female) aged 11-13 years, drawn from six secondary schools in England. Self-reports...
Article
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We compared the goals, reputations and behaviours of three groups: African adolescents from refugee backgrounds in Australian Intensive English Centres (IEC), African adolescents who have transitioned from an IEC into mainstream schooling, and Australian mainstream adolescents. We posit the need for African adolescents from refugee backgrounds to i...
Article
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This study assessed the concurrent and prospective (fall to spring) associations between four different humor styles to assess the degree to which stable friendships are characterized by similarity, and to assess whether best friends' humor styles influence each other's later use of humor. Participants were aged 11-13 years, with 87 stable, recipro...
Article
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Attempting to understand how humor styles relate to psychological adjustment by correlating these two constructs fails to address the emerging understanding that individuals use combinations of humor styles, and that different combinations may be differentially associated with psychosocial adjustment. Indeed humor types have been identified in adul...
Article
Full-text available
Using a national sample of 7,533 U.S. Adolescents in grades 6-10, this study compares the social-ecological correlates of face-to-face and cyberbullying victimization. Results indicate that younger age, male sex, hours spent on social media, family socioeconomic status (SES; individual context), parental monitoring (family context), positive feelin...