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Playful ParentingPlayful parenting is engaging & connecting with your child through different forms of play. Play is an enjoyable activity that is freely entered into, with a goal of shared joy.
Research
Mental health profiles and academic achievement in Australian school studentsThis study explored mental health profiles in Australian school students using indicators of well-being (i.e., optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness) and psychological distress (i.e., sadness and worries). The sample included 75,757 students (ages 8-18 years) who completed the 2019 South Australian Wellbeing and Engagement Collection.
Research
Psychometric Properties of the EQ-5D-Y-5L for Children With Intellectual DisabilityThe EQ-5D-Y-5L is a generic preference-based measure of health-related quality of life for children. This study aimed to describe the distributional properties, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity of the EQ-5D-Y-5L in children with intellectual disability (ID).
Research
Supporting Maternal and Child Mental Health Through Dietary Changes Focused on the Gut MicrobiotaGrowing evidence from preclinical studies, epidemiology, and randomized controlled trials supports a causal role for diet quality in mental disorder risk, and clinical psychiatric guidelines now place diet, along with other life-style behaviors, as foundational treatment targets for mood disorders.
Research
Don't Get Lost in Translation: Integrating Developmental and Implementation Sciences to Accelerate Real-World Impact on Children's Development, Health, and WellbeingTranslation of developmental science discoveries is impeded by numerous barriers at different stages of the research-to-practice pipeline. Actualization of the vast potential of the developmental sciences to improve children's health and development in the real world is imperative but has not yet been fully realized.
Research
The orofacial, oromotor, speech, and voice characteristics of adolescents in youth detention: a comparison of groups with and without prenatal alcohol exposureLanguage disorder is highly prevalent in youth justice; however, orofacial, oromotor, speech, and voice anomalies have been largely overlooked. There has been some documentation of these among individuals with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE), and adolescents with PAE are over-represented in youth justice.
Research
Basic epidemiology of wellbeing among children and adolescents: A cross-sectional population level studyWellbeing and mental health are fundamental rights of children and adolescents essential for sustainable development. Understanding the epidemiology of child and adolescent wellbeing is essential to informing population health approaches to improving wellbeing and preventing mental illness.
Research
The oral and written narrative language skills of adolescent students in youth detention and the impact of language disorderUnmet language and literacy needs are common among young people who are involved with youth justice systems. However, there is limited research regarding the functional text-level language skills of this population with regard to narrative macrostructure (story grammar) and microstructure (semantics and syntax) elements. In this study, we examined macrostructure and microstructure elements in the oral and written narrative texts of 24 adolescent students of a youth detention centre. The students, who were aged 14- to 17- years, were all speakers of Standard Australian English, and 11 (46%) students met criteria for language disorder (LD).
Research
Self-Compassion, Wellbeing, and Distress in Adolescents and Young Adults with Chronic Medical Conditions: the Mediating Role of Emotion Regulation DifficultiesAdolescents and young adults with chronic medical conditions report higher distress and lower wellbeing than their physically healthy peers. Previous research suggests that self-compassion is negatively correlated with distress and positively correlated with wellbeing among healthy young people, as well as adults with chronic medical conditions.

News & Events
Early signs of mental health problems in young children under the spotlightDr Amy Finlay-Jones has been awarded the prestigious Healthway Fellowship for 2021.