Pathways to social and emotional wellbeing: Lessons from a 24-year longitudinal study

Commencing in 1983, the longitudinal Australian Temperament Project (ATP) provides a valuable lens through which to view the pathways taken by Australian children from infancy to adulthood, and the factors associated with positive or problematic development. The study is now in its 25th year and has completed 14 data collection waves. This paper provides an overview of ATP findings on young people’s wellbeing at 23–24 years of age, their engagement in risk-taking behaviours such as alcohol use and risky driving, and the nature of parent–child relationships over adolescence and early adulthood

Building a new life in Australia: introducing the longitudinal study of humanitarian migrants

Introduces a study aimed to shed light on the settlement pathways and outcomes of newly arrived humanitarian migrants, focusing particularly on the factors that promote or hinder a successful transition. Introduction Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants is a newly initiated study that aims to better understand the factors that aid or hinder the successful settlement of humanitarian migrants in Australia, and to provide an evidence base to inform policy and program development. This ground-breaking longitudinal study will employ annual data collections over five years to trace the settlement journey of humanitarian migrants from their arrival in Australia through to their eligibility for citizenship. All study participants have received a permanent humanitarian visa enabling them to settle in Australia, granted either before their arrival in Australia as part of Australia\u27s refugee program, or since their arrival, through Australia\u27s asylum seeker humanitarian program. Study participants have come from a diverse range of backgrounds and a multitude of migration pathways. Three broad research questions guide the study: What are the settlement outcomes of humanitarian migrants? How are they faring in terms of their English language proficiency, housing circumstances, labour force participation, use of qualifications, income, physical and mental health, community engagement, citizenship and level of satisfaction with life in Australia? How does access to and use of government and non-government services and welfare benefits contribute to humanitarian migrants\u27 successful settlement? Do the settlement experiences and outcomes of humanitarian migrants vary according to the differing migration pathways taken? The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) has been commissioned by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) (formerly the Department of Immigration and Citizenship [DIAC]) to undertake and manage the project. Colmar Brunton Social Research, in conjunction with Multicultural Marketing and Management, is the fieldwork agency undertaking the data collection for the project. From April 2014, responsibility for the study moved from the DIBP to the Department of Social Services

Childhood reading difficulties and behaviour problems: Inter-relationships and consequences

This thesis examined developmental pathways between childhood behaviour problems and reading difficulties, and their separate and joint consequences for adolescent and early-adult outcomes. Behaviour problems were implicated in the development, continuation and exacerbation of reading difficulties, but reading difficulties did not instigate behaviour problems. Each problem was associated with school dropout and poorer occupational outcomes, while co-occurring problems substantially magnified this risk. Prevention and early intervention are vital

Positive development in emerging adulthood

Positive functioning in the developmental period of emerging adulthood has received little investigation. The current study investigated components of positive development using confirmatory factor analysis of Australian Temperament Project data collected from 1,158 young adults aged 19-20 years. Positive development constructs that have been theoretically conceptualised were examined to test core concepts. Five first-order constructs were identified in this sample: Civic Action and Engagement, Social Competence, Life Satisfaction, Trust and Tolerance of Others, and Trust in Authorities and Organisations. A second-order positive development factor defined by these constructs provided good fit for the data. This model of positive development in emerging adulthood can provide an outcome measure that can then be used to investigate the developmental processes and pathways involved.<br /

Associations between early childhood temperament clusters and later pychosocial adjustment

The study adopted a person-centered approach to examine whether clusters of children could be identified on the basis of temperament profiles assessed on four occasions from infancy to early childhood, and if so whether differing temperament clusters were associated with subsequent differences in behavior problems, social skills, and school adjustment in middle and late childhood. Parent, teacher, and self-report data were obtained from a large community-based cohort sample of Australian children, followed prospectively from infancy to late childhood. Four temperament clusters were identified. Children in the clusters labeled as reactive/inhibited and poor attention regulation tended to have higher levels of later behavior problems than children in clusters labeled nonreactive/outgoing and high attention regulation. Results suggested that a person-oriented clustering approach can identify children on the basis of early temperament who are at greater risk for behavioral, academic, and social difficulties four to eight years later.<br /

Parenting influences on adolescent alcohol use

Report prepared by the Australian Institute of Family Studies for the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing Australian Institute

The Power of Feminist Judgments?

Recent years have seen the advent of two feminist judgment-writing projects, the Women’s Court of Canada, and the Feminist Judgments Project in England. This article analyses these projects in light of Carol Smart’s feminist critique of law and legal reform and her proposed feminist strategies in Feminism and the Power of Law (1989). At the same time, it reflects on Smart’s arguments 20 years after their first publication and considers the extent to which feminist judgment-writing projects may reinforce or trouble her conclusions. It argues that both of these results are discernible—that while some of Smart’s contentions have proved to be unsustainable, others remain salient and have both inspired and hold important cautions for feminist judgment-writing projects

The Australian temperament project: the first 30 years

The Australian Temperament Project (ATP) is a longitudinal study of the psychosocial development of a large and representative sample of Australian children born in the state of Victoria, Australia between September 1982 and January 1983.The study aims to trace the pathways to psychosocial adjustment and maladjustment across the lifespan, and to investigate the contribution of personal, family and environmental factors to development and wellbeing.<br /

Panels of chemically-modified heparin polysaccharides and natural heparan sulfate saccharides exhibit differences in binding to Slit and Robo, as well as variation between protein binding and cellular activity.

Heparin/ heparan sulfate (HS) glycosaminoglycans are required for Slit-Robo cellular responses. Evidence exists for interactions between each combination of Slit, Robo and heparin/HS and for formation of a ternary complex. Heparin/HS are complex mixtures displaying extensive structural diversity. The relevance of this diversity has been studied to a limited extent using a few select chemically-modified heparins as models of HS diversity. Here we extend these studies by parallel screening of structurally diverse panels of eight chemically-modified heparin polysaccharides and numerous natural HS oligosaccharide chromatographic fractions for binding to both Drosophila Slit and Robo N-terminal domains and for activation of a chick retina axon response to the Slit fragment. Both the polysaccharides and oligosaccharide fractions displayed variability in binding and cellular activity that could not be attributed solely to increasing sulfation, extending evidence for the importance of structural diversity to natural HS as well as model modified heparins. They also displayed differences in their interactions with Slit compared to Robo, with Robo preferring compounds with higher sulfation. Furthermore, the patterns of cellular activity across compounds were different to those for binding to each protein, suggesting that biological outcomes are selectively determined in a subtle manner that does not simply reflect the sum of the separate interactions of heparin/HS with Slit and Robo