Beyond Bullying in Primary Schools: Explicating Psychosocial Antecedents and Implementing an Effective Intervention to Enhance Pro-Social Behaviour, Well-Being and Academic Engagement. Early intervention to combat bullying in primary schools is vital given the pervasiveness and long-term consequences of bullying for academic failure, mental health costs, and anti-social behaviour. Consistent with National Research Priorities (promoting/maintaining good health & well-being), our research offers i ....Beyond Bullying in Primary Schools: Explicating Psychosocial Antecedents and Implementing an Effective Intervention to Enhance Pro-Social Behaviour, Well-Being and Academic Engagement. Early intervention to combat bullying in primary schools is vital given the pervasiveness and long-term consequences of bullying for academic failure, mental health costs, and anti-social behaviour. Consistent with National Research Priorities (promoting/maintaining good health & well-being), our research offers important educational and socio-economic benefits by enriching the psychosocial adjustment and life potential of young Australians. Effective intervention and explicating the determinants/consequences of primary school bullying enhances pro-social behaviours, self-concept, mental health, and school engagement of bullies and victims. This fosters safer schools that contribute to individual, local community, and national well-being.Read moreRead less
An exploratory cluster trial of a sustainable capacity building intervention to promote positive child mental health in Family Day Care. Rarely is solution-oriented intervention research built and conducted with rigorous research designs in communities of extreme disadvantage. This study builds on the enthusiasm of a leading child welfare organisation in its commitment to contribute to evidence for practice-oriented solutions. The research will serve as a model for the Family Day Care and childc ....An exploratory cluster trial of a sustainable capacity building intervention to promote positive child mental health in Family Day Care. Rarely is solution-oriented intervention research built and conducted with rigorous research designs in communities of extreme disadvantage. This study builds on the enthusiasm of a leading child welfare organisation in its commitment to contribute to evidence for practice-oriented solutions. The research will serve as a model for the Family Day Care and childcare sectors. The study is an essential step in the development of an intervention prior to a large-scale evaluation. With a strong evidence base, this program may be implemented widely within the sector nationally, thus addressing a key area of children's health inequalities - mental health.Read moreRead less
Determining implementation drivers in resilience education. Determining implementation drivers in resilience education. This project aims to develop implementation frameworks to help the education sector universally provide resilience education programmes. More young people have mental health problems. Although evidence-based resilience education reduces these problems, education sectors do not know how to address barriers to school provision. The solution is implementation research. This projec ....Determining implementation drivers in resilience education. Determining implementation drivers in resilience education. This project aims to develop implementation frameworks to help the education sector universally provide resilience education programmes. More young people have mental health problems. Although evidence-based resilience education reduces these problems, education sectors do not know how to address barriers to school provision. The solution is implementation research. This project will study system and school-level factors influencing primary and high school uptake of social and emotional learning curricula that enhance resilience; and implementation drivers at both system and school levels, and influences on uptake and student and staff resilience. The outcome is universal provision of resilience education programs that benefit young people.Read moreRead less
Improving children's language, literacy and mental health: evaluating the impact of the classroom promotion of oral language (CPOL) approach. As spoken communication and literacy are major influences on children's developmental pathways and life success, this project will determine whether improving teacher knowledge and practice relating to teaching oral language improves primary school students' achievements in oral language and literacy, and improves their social and emotional wellbeing.
Facilitating the transfer of training through values clarification. Mental health service workers who attend training programs seldom transfer that training into routine practice. This is at considerable cost to health services, patients and the community. This research program aims to improve skills transfer by supplementing training with a values-based intervention and ongoing coaching. By helping staff connect their training experience with important personal values we believe they will be mo ....Facilitating the transfer of training through values clarification. Mental health service workers who attend training programs seldom transfer that training into routine practice. This is at considerable cost to health services, patients and the community. This research program aims to improve skills transfer by supplementing training with a values-based intervention and ongoing coaching. By helping staff connect their training experience with important personal values we believe they will be more likely to use their new skills in routine practice, will engage in better health care will be more satisfied and less burnt out, and will be less likely to leave their jobs. It will help with future values-based interventions to improve workforce development initiatives in a range of Australian workplaces.Read moreRead less