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Child development census shows most kids are on track

The national report released today from the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) shows that in 2015, most children in Australia were on track.

Playgroup Week celebrates importance of early childhood intervention

National Playgroup Week, the annual event run by Playgroup Australia, will take place across the country from 20 March to 27 March.

Breakfast skipping and cognitive and emotional engagement at school: A cross-sectional population level study

Research on the consequences of breakfast skipping among students tends to focus on academic outcomes, rather than student wellbeing or engagement at school. This study investigated the association between breakfast skipping and cognitive and emotional aspects of school engagement.

Holistic Early Childhood Development Index goes global

Children around the world could have better access to education thanks to an early childhood development index created for UNESCO by The Kids researcher, Prof Sally Brinkman.

Basic epidemiology of wellbeing among children and adolescents: A cross-sectional population level study

Wellbeing and mental health are fundamental rights of children and adolescents essential for sustainable development. Understanding the epidemiology of child and adolescent wellbeing is essential to informing population health approaches to improving wellbeing and preventing mental illness.

Promoting Mental Health in New Zealand: Building Resilience in Teenage Children

There has been concerns about the increasing incidence of youth depression and anxiety, with school teachers seeking out ways to better equip youth with skills to help them deal with daily life. A resilience training programme for youth was implemented in one region of New Zealand.

School-based intervention to address self-regulation and executive functioning in children attending primary schools in remote Australian Aboriginal communities

Executive functioning and self-regulation influence a range of outcomes across the life course including physical and mental health, educational success, and employment

Gender gaps in cognitive and social-emotional skills in early primary grades: Evidence from rural Indonesia

This paper examines the magnitude and source of gender gaps in cognitive and social-emotional skills in early primary grades in rural Indonesia. Relative to boys, girls score more than 0.17 SD higher in tests of language and mathematics (cognitive skills) and between 0.18 and 0.27 SD higher in measures of social competence and emotional maturity (social-emotional skills).

Early developmental risk for subsequent childhood mental disorders in an Australian population cohort

We examined associations between developmental vulnerability profiles determined at the age of 5 years and subsequent childhood mental illness between ages 6 and 13 years in an Australian population cohort.

Data Resource Profile: The South Australian Well-being and Engagement Collection (WEC)

Mental health and well-being during childhood and adolescence have been shown to impact on health, educational attainment and employment in adulthood.1–3 Although health and education systems worldwide have long recognized the importance of promoting student well-being,4–6 population-wide monitoring of well-being remains uncommon.