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The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers have been awarded more than $10 million in research funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Research

The transition to parenthood is a high-risk period for many parents and is an important period for child development. Research has identified that parental mental health, reflective functioning (capacity to consider mental states of oneself and others) and coparenting (capacity to work together well as a parenting team) may be particularly significant predictors of later child outcomes, however these factors have seldom been considered together.

Research

Positive maternal mental health during the perinatal period contributes to general well-being and positive emotional bonds with the child, encouraging an optimal developmental trajectory. Online interventions to enhance maternal well-being and develop coping skills, such as meditation-based interventions, can be a low-cost way to improve mother and child outcomes.

Research

Family carers of youth recovering from early psychosis experience significant stress; however, access to effective family interventions is poor. Digital interventions provide a promising solution.

Research

Maternal psychological distress is related to poorer physical and mental health as well as child developmental problems. Interventions that optimise maternal mental health and wellbeing during the "first 1,000 days" of life should have wide-reaching benefits for the mother and her child.

Research

Evidence suggests that the earlier supports are provided to young Autistic children, the better the overall outcomes. Supports have typically only been available after an autism diagnosis but with increased knowledge about early developmental trajectories, clinical supports can now be offered prediagnosis for infants showing early autism features and/or those with a family history of autism. 

Research

Meaningful involvement of young People with Lived Experience (PWLE) in co-designing youth mental health interventions has been much emphasized globally. However, there is a scarcity of evidence on involving PWLE of mental health problems in designing, implementing and evaluating mental health interventions, especially in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Research

Parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) experience emotional distress throughout their child's treatment course. This study describes the psychological experience of Australian and New Zealand parents of children diagnosed with ALL. 

Research

The physical health comorbidities and premature mortality experienced by people with mental illness has led to an increase in exercise services embedded as part of standard care in hospital-based mental health services. Despite the increase in access to exercise services for people experiencing mental illness, there is currently a lack of guidelines on the assessment and triage of patients into exercise therapy.

Research

The capacity for children to self-regulate is an important developmental task of early childhood, with caregivers playing an integral role in self-regulation development. While caregivers' emotions and behaviors are known to impact child self-regulatory capacity, the impact of child self-regulation difficulties on parents is less understood.