Building capacity for online counselling for schools: developing and evaluating an online school counselling program. The wellbeing of children and young people is an important goal nationally and school-based online counselling has the potential to directly benefit them. The impact of mental health problems and poor life and career choices in adolescence is undisputed. This project will facilitate access to career and mental health support through technology.
Understanding the school as an intergroup system: Implications for school reform and improving student and staff outcomes. This project applies a novel social psychological understanding of group processes and intergroup relations to Australian schools. The result is a new and promising framework that will be trialed and evaluated through this project. The central idea is that one's group memberships and associated norms and practices directly impact on the attitudes and behaviours of individ ....Understanding the school as an intergroup system: Implications for school reform and improving student and staff outcomes. This project applies a novel social psychological understanding of group processes and intergroup relations to Australian schools. The result is a new and promising framework that will be trialed and evaluated through this project. The central idea is that one's group memberships and associated norms and practices directly impact on the attitudes and behaviours of individual members. The aim is to change the relevant groups within a school and how they relate in order to build a more positive school climate and higher school identification and as a result, improve school outcomes (e.g., attendance, academic achievement, well-being).Read moreRead less
School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. This project aims to investigate the effect of State Education Departments’ policy interventions designed to improve school principals’ flagging wellbeing. Increasing competition, accountability and public scrutiny make principals stressed; since their influence on students is second only to teachers’, this threatens Australia’s socioeconomic outcomes. The project will map policy interventions to changes in princ ....School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. School principals’ diminishing wellbeing. This project aims to investigate the effect of State Education Departments’ policy interventions designed to improve school principals’ flagging wellbeing. Increasing competition, accountability and public scrutiny make principals stressed; since their influence on students is second only to teachers’, this threatens Australia’s socioeconomic outcomes. The project will map policy interventions to changes in principals’ motivation and wellbeing, and share information about the most productive and cost effective interventions with key stakeholders across Australia. This research could reverse the declining wellbeing of Australia’s school leaders.Read moreRead less
The impact of outdoor youth programs on positive adolescent development: an empirical evaluation. This project will seek to ensure that the nation's outdoor resources are fully utilised for the benefit of young people. Accordingly, this project will conduct the first comprehensive randomised controlled trial of a structured outdoor youth program in order to inform more strategic investment in outdoor programs to promote positive youth development.
Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empi ....Creating perceptual experts in Australia's policing and security agencies. This project aims to create the next generation of experts in Australia’s policing and national security agencies, by improving crime scene evidence interpretation. Agencies are under pressure to develop more rigorous training practices that go beyond mere intuition and tradition. This project will use a novel approach that directs learning toward the most diagnostic perceptual cues. Expected outcomes include a solid empirical basis for national training programs designed to create experts that are accurate, reliable, and continuously improving. Improving the training of experts will ensure the integrity of forensics as evidentiary tools available to police, lead to more reliable courtroom convictions and help safeguard Australia from terrorism and crime.Read moreRead less
Pathways from Child Protection and Juvenile Justice. Almost 50% of children (10-14 year) in the Juvenile Justice (JJ) system have substantiated histories in Child Protection (CP). The vast majority of children with CP histories do not go on to offend. Other children, with no CP history, exhibit troubled behaviour and offending. The accuracy of instruments designed to identify at-risk children and adolescents will be investigated and individual and social factors that contribute to maladjustment ....Pathways from Child Protection and Juvenile Justice. Almost 50% of children (10-14 year) in the Juvenile Justice (JJ) system have substantiated histories in Child Protection (CP). The vast majority of children with CP histories do not go on to offend. Other children, with no CP history, exhibit troubled behaviour and offending. The accuracy of instruments designed to identify at-risk children and adolescents will be investigated and individual and social factors that contribute to maladjustment and offending in these populations will be identified. The identification of factors that are related to children and adolescents entering the CP and JJ systems will inform the development of targeted prevention/intervention strategies.Read moreRead less
Detecting identity fraud in passport applications: Improving human operator performance through better understanding of unfamiliar face processing. The passport is a vital link in the defence of Australia against terrorism and crime. In this project researchers will work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to improve the ability of staff to detect identity fraud in passport applications, thus helping to protect the integrity of the Australian passport as a trusted identity document.
Heart rate variability biofeedback coaching in reducing workplace stress: laboratory and field investigations. Targeted and informed intervention in workplace stress is a vital concept in stress management, yet it is often misinformed. Using mobile heart rate monitors we are able to measure the causes and consequences of stress in a controlled and natural environment and design specific biofeedback interventions to attack primary sources of employee strain.
A multi-level approach to the management of demands and resources to minimise the risk of psychosocial injury in the workplace. This project aims to identify ways supervisors can effectively manage workplace stress experienced by team members. Expected outcomes include better management of workplace stress and reduction in the number of employees suffering from the stress-induced ill-health, thereby reducing workers' compensation claims for stress and lowering costs.
A community based social identity approach to loneliness. Loneliness across Australia is a deep concern. Social prescribing is a novel community-based approach to managing loneliness, however it is unclear when and in what circumstances it is effective. This project aims to test a social identity approach to loneliness, incorporating longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental methods to understand how best to engage isolated people in group programs. The expected benefits of this project ar ....A community based social identity approach to loneliness. Loneliness across Australia is a deep concern. Social prescribing is a novel community-based approach to managing loneliness, however it is unclear when and in what circumstances it is effective. This project aims to test a social identity approach to loneliness, incorporating longitudinal, cross-sectional, and experimental methods to understand how best to engage isolated people in group programs. The expected benefits of this project are to produce a validated social prescribing model that can be implemented in multiple settings across Australia in order to reduce loneliness, strengthen communities, and guide more appropriate uses of health services.Read moreRead less