Contact with mothers for children in out-of-home-care: Group-based trajectory modelling from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS).

Background: Good quality contact with birth parents is considered important to successful out-of-home care (OOHC) placements.

Objective: There is, however, an absence of empirical evidence about contact needs of children in the OOHC system and how these needs change over time.

Participants And Setting: The current analysis analyzed four waves of data from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study in Australia relating to 1507 children on yearly frequency of contact with mothers, relationship quality with mothers, and the extent that contact met the needs of the child.

Gambling Harm Experienced by Children Exposed to Parental Gambling: An Online Survey of Australians.

Although child wellbeing is known to be negatively affected by gambling, relatively little is known about the specific harms experienced by children exposed to parental gambling problems. The current study aimed to better understand gambling harm directly attributed to regular parental gambling in key areas of child wellbeing: financial, psychological, interpersonal wellbeing and intergenerational transmission of problem gambling. Using data from a national survey of Australian adults exposed to parental gambling under the age of 18 (n = 211), the results show that parental gambling was related significant levels of financial harm, abuse, neglect as well as relational and psychological problems as a direct result of parental gambling.

Parental problem gambling and child wellbeing: Systematic review and synthesis of evidence.

Background: Children living with a problem gambling parent are at risk of harm but no previous systematic reviews have specifically focused on the relationship of parental problem gambling and child wellbeing outcomes. The current review aimed to redress this gap by reviewing all available empirical evidence on parental problem gambling and child wellbeing.

Method: Articles were identified by searching PsychINFO, CINAHL, Medline and Scopus.

Cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) to support parental contact for children in out-of-home care.

Background: There is an identified need to improve the evidence-base in relation to contact visits for children in the out-of-home-care (OOHC) system, to ensure optimal outcomes.

Objective: The aim of this cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) was to test the effectiveness of a contact intervention for parents having supervised contact with children in long-term OOHC.

Participants: 183 study children in 15 clusters (OOHC services) and their parent(s) were randomized to the intervention (8 clusters, 100 children) and control groups (7 clusters, 83 children) in three Australian jurisdictions.

Health-care costs of underweight, overweight and obesity: Australian population-based study.

Aim: Child health varies with body mass index (BMI), but it is unknown by what age or how much this attracts additional population health-care costs. We aimed to determine the (1) cross-sectional relationships between BMI and costs across the first decade of life and (2) in longitudinal analyses, whether costs increase with duration of underweight or obesity.

Participants: Baby (n = 4230) and Kindergarten (n = 4543) cohorts in the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Primary health-care costs associated with special health care needs up to age 7 years: Australian population-based study.

Aim: We studied infants and children with and without special health care needs (SHCN) during the first 8 years of life to compare the (i) types and costs to the government's Medicare system of non-hospital health-care services and prescription medication in each year and (ii) cumulative costs according to persistence of SHCN.

Methods: Data from the first two biennial waves of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, comprising two independent cohorts recruited in 2004, at ages 0-1 (n = 5107) and 4-5 (n = 4983) years. Exposure condition: parent-reported Children with Special Health Care Needs Screener at both waves, spanning ages 0-7 years.

Healthcare costs associated with language difficulties up to 9 years of age: Australian population-based study.

Purpose: This study aimed to quantify the non-hospital healthcare costs associated with language difficulties within two nationally representative samples of children.

Method: Data were from three biennial waves (2004-2008) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (B cohort: 0-5 years; K cohort: 4-9 years). Language difficulties were defined as scores ≤ 1.

Thirty years of the United Nations and global ageing: an Australian perspective.

Over the past three decades, the United Nations (UN) has slowly devoted increasing attention to global ageing. Concern for individually based welfare or health-care programs for older people in developed countries has progressed to also consider the contributions of older people and implications of ageing for socioeconomic advancement in developing countries, including those in Asia Oceania. These shifts are evident in the International Plans of Action on Ageing from Vienna in 1982 to Madrid in 2002; recent 10-year reviews of the Madrid Plan; and current advocacy for inclusion of ageing in the influential UN Millennium Plan post-2015.

Health Care Costs Associated With Parent-Reported ADHD: A Longitudinal Australian Population-Based Study.

Objective: To examine the health care costs associated with ADHD within a nationally representative sample of children.

Method: Data were from Waves 1 to 3 (4-9 years) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children ( N = 4,983). ADHD was defined by previous diagnosis and a measure of ADHD symptoms (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ]).

The cost of healthcare for children with mental health difficulties.

Objective: Childhood mental health difficulties affect one in every seven children in Australia, posing a potential financial burden to society. This paper reports on the early lifetime individual and population non-hospital healthcare costs to the Australian Federal Government for children experiencing mental health difficulties. It also reports on the use and cost of particular categories of service use, including the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) mental health items introduced in 2006.

Combining work and family: rewards or risks for children's mental health?

Prevailing child psychopathology paradigms focus on caregiving in isolation from market work. Yet most children's caregivers - mothers and fathers - are also employed. Although policy and academic debate has voiced concerns that employment could hamper mothers' capacity to care, less emphasis is given to the benefits generated by mothers' jobs.

Psychosocial risk factors associated with fathers' mental health in the postnatal period: results from a population-based study.

Purpose: Fathers' psychological distress in the postnatal period can have adverse effects on their children's wellbeing and development, yet little is known about the factors associated with fathers' distress. This paper examines a broad range of socio-demographic, individual, infant and contextual factors to identify those associated with fathers' psychological distress in the first year postpartum.

Methods: Secondary analysis of data from 3,219 fathers participating in the infant cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children at wave 1 when children were 0-12 months of age.

Father mental health during the early parenting period: results of an Australian population based longitudinal study.

Purpose: The primary objective of this study was to report on the occurrence of mental health difficulties for a large national sample of Australian fathers of children aged 0-5 years (n = 3,471). Secondary objectives were to compare fathers' mental health against normative data for the general male adult population, and to examine the course of mental health problems for fathers across the early childhood period.

Methods: Secondary analysis of data from the infant cohort of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children at three waves when children were 0-12 months, 2-3 and 4-5 years.

Risk factors for childhood mental health symptoms: national longitudinal study of Australian children.

Objective: To determine predictors of child externalizing (behavioral) and internalizing (emotional) symptoms in a national population sample.

Methods: Data were collected in 3 biennial waves (2004, 2006, and 2008) from 2 cohorts in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, initially including 5107 children 0 to 1 year of age and 4983 children 4 to 5 years of age. The primary outcomes were child externalizing and internalizing symptoms.

Socioeconomic inequality profiles in physical and developmental health from 0-7 years: Australian National Study.

Background: Early and persistent exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage impairs children's health and wellbeing. However, it is unclear at what age health inequalities emerge or whether these relationships vary across ages and outcomes. We address these issues using cross-sectional Australian population data on the physical and developmental health of children at ages 0-1, 2-3, 4-5 and 6-7 years.

Psychological distress in non-drinkers: associations with previous heavy drinking and current social relationships.

Aims: The aim of this paper is to investigate two possible explanations for the higher levels of psychological distress observed among alcohol abstainers relative to light and moderate drinkers, and to investigate possible moderating effects of age on this association. The possible explanations were that: (i) the higher level of psychological distress among abstainers is due to the presence of a subset of former heavy drinkers in this group; and (ii) abstainers have poorer social relationships than light/moderate drinkers.

Methods: A national cross-sectional survey yielded data from 2856 Australians aged 20-22, 30-32 and 40-42 years (response rate 15.