Households are important health contexts, providing social, emotional, financial and material support, but little is known about the role of household composition in the social etiology of Indigenous health. Our research is framed by an Indigenous standpoint, using eight waves of data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. We investigated whether household composition and change in household composition were associated with the self-reported general health of Indigenous children ...

Objective: Sport may promote academic performance through physiological and psychosocial mechanisms. We aimed to examine the association between sports participation and academic performance in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Methods: Participants were from four successive waves of Australia’s Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (n ¼ 303, baseline age 5–6 y). Cumulative sports participation was regressed against academic performance from two standardised tests. Res...

Indigenous fathers play a central role in the lives of Indigenous children growing up strong. For Australia’s Indigenous people, growing strong includes the possessing heightened levels of health, education and cultural knowledge. This article focuses on Indigenous fathers and how they understand the importance of sharing cultural activities with their children. We argue that the sharing of Indigenous cultural practices, and the subsequent telling of this narrative, are key enablers for ...

To explore sleep patterns in indigenous Australian children and assess the role of sleep timing in longitudinal changes in body mass index (BMI). Latent profile analysis was conducted with the Australian Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) cohort data (wave 5), to determine distinct patterns of bed and wake timing, taking account of weekday sleep duration, weekday and weekend bedtimes, and weekday wake times. Multilevel models with a random intercept were used to investigate the ...

The present thesis explores the effects of racism on Aboriginal children’s social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) and Aboriginal pregnant women’s mental health and wellbeing. Identification of protective factors against the effects of racism on child wellbeing was also contemplated. The thesis comprises seven chapters. Chapter 1 includes a review of the literature on characteristics of the Aboriginal Australian population and the effects of racism across the lifespan. This chapter also contemp...

This paper provides a brief summary of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, a nationally representative household panel survey. It describes the survey’s key design features, provides an overview of its content, and reports on response rates and sample sizes. It also highlights a few examples of research utilising the data, discusses two challenges currently facing the study, and provides details on how to access the data.

Participation in sport and physical activity can improve academic outcomes and has been identified as a potential mechanism for addressing educational disadvantage and 'closing the gap' in Australian Indigenous communities. To explore this possibility in relation to sport and lifestyle we performed a cluster analysis on data from the Footprints in Time study (also known as the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children), using data from Waves 3-6 (2010-2013, ages 5-9 years) of this cohort stud...

This critical systematic review of Australian research literature provides insights into the aspirations of Indigenous communities to collaborate with schools in establishing local Indigenous language and cultural programmes. This systematic review investigates the body of Australian research into the cultural, social and educational impacts on those Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students who have had opportunities to engage with these school-based Indigenous languages and/or cultu...

In Australia and internationally, there are increasing calls for the use of strengths-based methodologies, to counter the dominant deficit discourse that pervades research, policy, and media relating to Indigenous health and wellbeing. However, there is an absence of literature on the practical application of strengths-based approaches to quantitative research. This paper describes and empirically evaluates a set of strategies to support strengths-based quantitative analysis. A case study abo...

We study the effects of inherited socioeconomic characteristics on markers of unhealthy bodyweight. Taking Australian microdata from 2007 to 2013, we show that approximately 4% of the variation in outcomes is determined by factors beyond an individual's control, such as their race, gender, and social class. Paternal socioeconomic status is the primary explanatory factor, with those born to more affluent fathers slightly less likely to be overweight in adulthood. Decompositions reveal that onl...

We provide an overview of the integration of refugees into the labor markets of a number of high-income countries. Discussing the ways in which refugees and economic migrants are differently selected and so might be expected to perform differently in a host country's labor market, we examine employment and wages for these groups over time after arrival. There is significant heterogeneity between host countries, but in general, refugees experience persistently worse outcomes than other migrant...

The aim of this paper is to summarise existing evidence and new analyses that shed light on the role of reconciliation in schools and early learning services in particular, and in education more broadly. We present the first analysis in Australia of the relationship between racism/discrimination and cognitive development among the Indigenous Australian population, showing a negative and statistically significant longitudinal relationship. We discuss the policy implications of these findings...

The aim of this paper is to summarise existing evidence and new analyses that shed light on the role of reconciliation in schools and early learning services in particular, and in education more broadly. We present the first analysis in Australia of the relationship between racism/discrimination and cognitive development among the Indigenous Australian population, showing a negative and statistically significant longitudinal relationship. We discuss the policy implications of these findings...

This study empirically tests the displacement hypothesis, examining whether adolescents' mobile phone use displaces time spent on activities that benefit cognitive development and academic performance. Longitudinal time-use data from a sample of Australian early adolescents (ages 10-13) and a difference-in-differences design are used to model the effect of first mobile phone acquisition on allocation of time to various activities. The results challenge the displacement hypothesis, providing n...

Based on the job characteristics model and the Big Five theory of personality, the author proposed a model to suggest that skill varieties and job autonomy can drive changes in Big Five personality traits, particularly openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Hypothesis 1 posited that exposure to diverse skills is associated with increases in these traits over time. Hypothesis 2 suggested that job autonomy similarly leads to increases in openness, conscientiousness, and agreeablen...

This research about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children is now in its 17th year of data collection across Australia. The latest findings will be presented. This includes the work of the Queensland University of Technology on an LSIC Primary School Report which explores what helps LSIC children thrive, from the perspectives of parents and carers, teachers and the children themselves. The report shows that good student-teacher relationships and a positive school climate were factors ...

Children’s mental health symptoms’ development can be characterized by both continuity and discontinuity. However, existing studies ignore the potential discontinuity in children’s internalizing symptoms’ development. Hence, the current study examines continuous and discontinuous developmental trajectories using representative data from a sample of 2792 children (49.10% females) from the Growing Up in Australia cohort assessed seven times (ages 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16). Longitudinal measureme...

Prevalence of suicidal behaviour increases rapidly in middle to late adolescence. Predicting suicide attempts across different ages would enhance our understanding of how suicidal behaviour manifests in this period of rapid development. This study aimed to develop separate models to predict suicide attempts within a cohort at middle and late adolescence. It also sought to examine differences between the models derived across both developmental stages. This study used data from the nationally ...

The aim of this study is to provide an academic basis for understanding the phenomenon of quiet quitters and begin to detail the characteristics that distinguish them. The defining behavioural characteristic of quiet quitters is that they reduced the hours they worked over time, especially over the pandemic period. A sample of more than 2500 employees in Australia who had been working full-time toward the end of 2019, before the pandemic, and working full-time toward the end of 2022, aft...

This paper seeks to understand pathways into volunteering in the encore life stage and contribute to policy interventions. There is a need for more clarity regarding the delineation of formal volunteering from informal volunteering and from adult kin-caring. A sample of 4,464 respondents from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey was analysed using a set of logistic regressions, to explore three frames of volunteering —substitution (of former work time), complemen...

Obtaining employment is a high priority for people with refugee backgrounds in countries of resettlement and an important aspect of integration. There are a range of barriers to gaining work for new arrivals; however, much of the existing quantitative evidence on characteristics of employment and facilitators and barriers to work faced by refugees does not consider gender or focuses primarily on men. We used a large, longitudinal survey of over 2000 refugees to Australia to identify cha...

While conduct problem behaviour initiated in early childhood often escalates in frequency and seriousness through adolescence, a notable deceleration is typically seen by mid-adolescence. It has been hypothesised that prosocial behaviour, characterised by acts like sharing and comforting, may play a role in this deceleration. However, there is a distinct gap in the current literature when it comes to understanding the temporal dynamics between the acceleration of prosocial behaviours and the ...

We aimed to estimate healthy working life expectancy (HWLE) at age 50 years by gender, cohort, and level of education in Australia. We analysed data from two nationally representative cohorts in the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey. Each cohort was followed up annually from 2001 to 2010 and from 2011 to 2020. Poor health was defined by a self-reported, limiting, long-term health condition. Work was defined by current employment status. HWLEs were estimated with Interpo...