Investigators: Fiona Stanley, Nick De Klerk, Rebecca Glauert, Roz Walker, Scott Sims, Marcela Quintero, Carrington Shepherd, Jeffrey Cannon
External collaborators: Rhonda Marriott (Murdoch University)
The health and social disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is well documented, and extends across all of the national health priority areas. This includes aspects of mental health, although there are few reliable population-based studies that have specifically aimed to assess the mental health of Aboriginal peoples. Administrative and survey sources suggest that Aboriginal people are more likely to use mental health services, have higher inpatient events caused by mental disorders associated with alcohol and drug use, and are at a higher risk of dying as a result of suicide.
Mental health problems among Aboriginal communities reflect a history of profound dispossession, exclusion, discrimination, marginalisation and inequality, in various forms. These circumstances have created a mental health burden that can extend across generations of Aboriginal families. For example, the past policies and practices of forced separation from family and kinship networks (that were a widespread phenomenon in Australia until the 1970s) has been shown to have profound detrimental effects on the psychosocial functioning of these “stolen generation” children and their onward ability to adequately undertake the tasks of parenthood.
The evidence-base highlights that the pathways between parental and child mental health are multifaceted and complex. Child outcomes are influenced by their own personal attributes, as well as the characteristics of parents’ disorders, parental relationship quality, and a range of social factors (such as employment, housing, and family support).
This project is part of the Developmental Pathways in WA Children Project (Developmental Pathways Project) and it represents the quantitative phase of a larger, mixed methods study, titled 'Promoting Positive Perinatal Mental Health, Parenting, Cultural and Spiritual Wellbeing, and Resilience in Aboriginal Parents in Western Australia'. The project was initially titled 'An Investigation of Parental Mental Health Among the Aboriginal Population in Western Australia, and its Impact on Children’s Outcomes', and has now been renamed 'WA Aboriginal Children’s Outcomes – The Impact of Parent’s Mental Health'.