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The goals of the current study were to identify different trajectories of sadness from Grade 6 to 9 in Australian school students, and to explore the role that social support from school, teachers, friends and families play in supporting students’ mental health.
It has been well established that children's development at school entry is associated with their later academic achievement, but less is known about whether there is also an association with other measures of school success, such as students' social and emotional wellbeing.
The Human Development and Community Wellbeing (HDCW) Team focuses on improving outcomes for children, family, and the community.
The Education Department of Western Australia advocates for culturally responsive schools. Aboriginal Indigenous Education Officers are employed by schools to facilitate and enable the potential for Aboriginal school children to thrive in school settings.
Recognition that schools should be responsive to children who are impacted by adversity and trauma is burgeoning internationally. However, consensus regarding the necessary components of a trauma-informed school is lacking. This research developed expert-informed and internationally relevant best-practice trauma-informed principles for schools.
Bullying behaviour often increases in late childhood and peaks in early adolescence. While interventions to address bullying behaviour typically encourage students to report bullying incidents to school staff, students are often reluctant to report incidents for fear it will worsen their situation or because they lack confidence in a staff members’ ability to intervene effectively. This study explores school staff responses to student reports of bullying behaviour.
Based on the socioecological conceptual model, the physical environment within the home, childcare and neighbourhood domains are key factors that influence preschool children's physical activity; however, the relative importance of each of these domains for preschool children's physical activity is unclear.
The dual-factor model of mental health proposes that high wellbeing and low distress are necessary to define mental health. This study used latent profile analysis to identify mental health profiles in a sample of 3,587 Australian grade 6 students and explored the association between mental health profiles and school outcomes measured in grades 7 and 9.
Young people’s use of mobile phones and access to the Internet has increased dramatically in the last decade, especially among those aged 9–15 years. Young people now rely on information and communication technology for much of their social interaction, which can have both positive and negative effects on their social and emotional well-being. Of particular concern is the extent to which digital technology (DT) provides opportunities for cyberbullying.
Mandates provide a relatively cost-effective strategy to increase vaccinate rates. Since 2014, five Australian states have implemented No Jab No Play (NJPlay) policies that require children to be fully immunised to attend early childhood education and childcare services. In Western Australia, where this study was conducted, NJNPlay legislation was enacted in 2019.