A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Emily Berger, Monash University and Karen Martin, University of Western Australia Mental health issues among children are on the rise due to the impacts of the COVID pandemic, including lockdowns. Recent reports show there has been a 28% spike in calls to the phone counselling service Kids Helpline between March and July 2020 compared with [...]
David Lubans, University of Newcastle and Myrto Mavilidi, University of Newcastle Primary school teachers often provide students with short physical activity breaks to energise kids and minimise classroom disruptions. Our study, published in the journal Educational Psychology Review, found we should be doing this for senior students too. We found a short activity break can [...]
Penny Van Bergen, Macquarie University; Linda J. Graham, Queensland University of Technology, and Naomi Sweller, Macquarie University Most of us can remember a favourite teacher. Some of us can also remember a teacher we didn’t get on with or with whom we always seemed to get in trouble. Relationships between students and teachers at school [...]
Lisa Mundy, Murdoch Children's Research Institute and George Patton, University of Melbourne Children aged 8 and 9 who watched more than two hours of TV a day or spent more than one hour a day on a computer had lower scores than their peers on reading and numeracy at ages 10 and 11, our study [...]
Associate Professor Nathan Grills and Nicole ButcherCOVID-19 has disproportionally affected disadvantaged and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. However, the Victorian Government has released little disaggregated data on categories like ethnicity or socioeconomic status – perhaps trying to avoid discriminating along lines of wealth, race or religion. At one level, not releasing this data minimises [...]
Sarah Whittle, University of Melbourne and Kate Bray, University of Melbourne The negative mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are clear, but there is particular concern children will be most affected in the long run. By the end of March school closures were impacting 91% of the world’s student population and are still affecting [...]
Natalie Lander, Deakin University and Jo Salmon, Deakin University Regular physical activity is linked to improvements in physical and mental health including anxiety and depression. It can also improve cognitive functioning such as attention and memory, and academic achievement in children. But only 14% of Australian children get the recommended 60 minutes of physical activity [...]
Lesley Irvine, Queensland University of Technology Many parents and students are engaged in a daily routine of speaking to people via a camera on a computer, tablet or phone during COVID-19 restrictions. This often means finding a quiet place in order to ask a question, provide an answer or share an opinion with a virtual [...]
Yannick Thoraval, RMIT University Some of my students have been assaulted. Others have been homeless, jobless or broke, some suffer from depression, anxiety or grief. Some fight addiction, cancer or for custody. Many are in pain and they want to write about it. Opening wounds in the classroom is messy and risky. Boundaries and intentions [...]
Associate Professor Terry Bowles and Emma PhillipsEmpathy is one of the major ways we come to understand ourselves and those around us. It is often described as a broad capacity, ability or skill that enables people to perceive and resonate with other’s emotions – effectively, it allows us to ‘walk’ in another person’s shoes. Empathy [...]
