Promoting Child and Carer Wellbeing and Placement Stability in Kinship Care. Kinship care is the fastest growing out-of-home care placement in Australia, yet least supported. This project aims to implement and evaluate an attachment and trauma-based program for kinship carers, explore its suitability for cultural adaptation for Indigenous families and co-design practical resources to promote program sustainability and trauma-informed practice. This project is Australia’s first randomised trial o ....Promoting Child and Carer Wellbeing and Placement Stability in Kinship Care. Kinship care is the fastest growing out-of-home care placement in Australia, yet least supported. This project aims to implement and evaluate an attachment and trauma-based program for kinship carers, explore its suitability for cultural adaptation for Indigenous families and co-design practical resources to promote program sustainability and trauma-informed practice. This project is Australia’s first randomised trial of a tailored program for kinship carers and expects to generate vital knowledge on evidence-based support. Via implementing an innovative program for kinship carers in statutory child protection, this project should build capacity for research-based practice and benefit family wellbeing and placement outcomes in kinship care.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.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100078
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Strengthening parent-child relationships to promote child adjustment. This project aims to provide new insight into how biological and foster parents can support their children during periods of heightened vulnerability when they transition to high school or a new foster care placement. It aims to address the shortage of relationally-focused prevention strategies tailored to both biological and foster parents’ needs and delivered at critical transitions in children’s lives. Outcomes are expected ....Strengthening parent-child relationships to promote child adjustment. This project aims to provide new insight into how biological and foster parents can support their children during periods of heightened vulnerability when they transition to high school or a new foster care placement. It aims to address the shortage of relationally-focused prevention strategies tailored to both biological and foster parents’ needs and delivered at critical transitions in children’s lives. Outcomes are expected to shed light on the effects of attachment quality and to advance evidence-based psychological practice in enhancing child adjustment.Read moreRead less
Perceptual and psychosocial factors associated with individual differences in face identity and face expression processing. What makes one person better or worse than another at recognising faces, or the emotions displayed in those faces? This project examines which aspects of visual perception contribute to these abilities, and their associations with problems such as debilitating social anxiety and young children's anti-social behaviour.
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
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
Investigating memory reliability in intoxicated witnesses of crime. Eyewitness testimony is a crucial piece of evidence for solving a crime. Inaccurate testimony leads to miscarriages of justice such as failed prosecutions or false convictions. Many witnesses and victims are affected by alcohol or other drugs during the crime. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team aiming to improve understanding of how intoxication with different substances affects the reliability of victim and w ....Investigating memory reliability in intoxicated witnesses of crime. Eyewitness testimony is a crucial piece of evidence for solving a crime. Inaccurate testimony leads to miscarriages of justice such as failed prosecutions or false convictions. Many witnesses and victims are affected by alcohol or other drugs during the crime. This project brings together a multidisciplinary team aiming to improve understanding of how intoxication with different substances affects the reliability of victim and witness memory accuracy. Crucially, crimes are frequently distressing; therefore the interaction between intoxication and stress urgently requires exploration. This project will significantly advance our understanding of key mechanisms behind drug effects on memory, and support fairer judicial outcomes for all. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100739
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$396,521.00
Summary
Measuring the sound of inner speech with advanced brain signal analyses. The overarching aim of this project is to develop an objective, electrophysiological marker capable of identifying the auditory properties of a person’s inner speech, which is defined as the silent production of words in one’s mind. This will be accomplished by combining novel experimental paradigms with advanced brain signal analyses. This marker would represent a historically significant event, placing Australia at the fo ....Measuring the sound of inner speech with advanced brain signal analyses. The overarching aim of this project is to develop an objective, electrophysiological marker capable of identifying the auditory properties of a person’s inner speech, which is defined as the silent production of words in one’s mind. This will be accomplished by combining novel experimental paradigms with advanced brain signal analyses. This marker would represent a historically significant event, placing Australia at the forefront of cognitive science. It would provide deep insight into the fundamental nature of inner speech, such as whether it is a “special form” of overt speech, and would inform the ongoing development of brain-computer interfaces aimed at deciphering inner speech for people who are unable to produce overt speech.Read moreRead less
Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain ....Beyond Directional Motivated Reasoning: Social Identity and Partisan Truth. This project aims to develop and test a new model of psychological processes by which people come to understand information as true or not. This project expects to generate advances in knowledge about how different groups produce opposing understandings of the world ("partisan truth"), despite equally rational and unbiased psychological processes. Expected outcomes include the development of a single framework to explain current piecemeal findings, expanding the analysis to current and socially-urgent partisan debates over truth (eg, vaccine hesitancy). Significant benefits include advancing knowledge and the development of guidelines to aid policy-makers and educators in the ultimate reduction of social discord caused by partisan truth.Read moreRead less
Adjustment to retirement through social identity change. This project aims to improve our understanding of the factors governing successful adjustment to retirement. Retirement involves a major life change, to which 30 per cent of people fail to adjust successfully. Previous work in the social identity tradition suggests that the negative effects of significant life changes (eg moving into care) can be buffered by access to social group networks, but this possibility has not been examined in the ....Adjustment to retirement through social identity change. This project aims to improve our understanding of the factors governing successful adjustment to retirement. Retirement involves a major life change, to which 30 per cent of people fail to adjust successfully. Previous work in the social identity tradition suggests that the negative effects of significant life changes (eg moving into care) can be buffered by access to social group networks, but this possibility has not been examined in the context of retirement. This project plans to address this gap through studies that establish the importance of social group factors for successful adjustment among Australian, English, American and Chinese retirees. It also plans to test the efficacy of a new model that seeks to improve adjustment to retirement by incorporating various forms of social planning into preparation for this transition.Read moreRead less