scholarly journals P036 Trajectories of emotional and behavioural problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: Role of sleep and cultural attachment

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. A33-A33
Author(s):  
Y Fatima ◽  
R Bucks ◽  
S King ◽  
S Solomon ◽  
T Skinner

Abstract Purpose This study explored the link between sleep and emotional and behavioural problems and assessed whether cultural attachment reduces the risk of emotional and behavioural problems in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) children. Methods The data from wave 5 to wave 10 of the Footprints in Time cohort were used. Multi-trajectory modelling was used to identify sleep trajectories using weekday sleep duration, weekday bedtimes, wake times, and sleep problems (waves 5, 7 & 10). Trajectories of emotional and behavioural problems were derived from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) data (waves 6, 8 & 10). Cultural attachment assessment included the knowledge of Indigenous language, clan, people, family stories/history and other cultural practice. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to assess the link between sleep and emotional and behavioural problems. Results Analysis of sleep data from 1270 Indigenous children (50.6% females, mean age 6.3 years (±1.5)) identified four distinct trajectories: early sleepers/early risers (19.3%); early/long sleepers (22.1%), normative sleepers (47.8%), and late sleepers (10.8%). Three emotional and behavioural problem trajectories emerged: low stable (49.1%), high decreasing (40.5%), and high stable (10.4%). Early sleepers//early risers (OR: 0.48, 95% CI: 0.28–0.82) and children with strong cultural attachment (OR: 0.47, 95% CI: 0.27–0.82) had lower odds of being in the high emotional and behavioural problem trajectory group. Conclusions Early bedtime in children may reduce the risk of future emotional and behavioural problems. The protective effect of cultural attachment further highlights the need for strengths-based approaches to reduce mental health issues in Indigenous children.

Author(s):  
Michaela Kosticova ◽  
Daniela Husarova ◽  
Zuzana Dankulincova

Sleep problems are common in adolescence with a negative impact on the mental health and functioning of adolescents. However, the roles of different sleep problems in relation to emotional and behavioural problems (EBPs), classified according to the 10th version of the International Classification of Diseases as emotional, conduct, hyperactivity and social functioning disorders, are not clear. The first aim of the study was to investigate the association between difficulties in getting to sleep and EBPs in adolescents. The second aim was to explore the role of sleep duration in this association. We used data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study conducted in 2018 in Slovakia. Presented are results for specific age groups of 13-year-old (N = 1909) and 15-year-old (N = 1293) adolescents. Subjective measures of sleep variables were used. Binary logistic regression models adjusted for age and gender were used to assess associations between difficulties in getting to sleep, sleep duration and EBPs measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Modification of the association between difficulties in getting to sleep and EBPs by sleep duration was also explored. We found that difficulties in getting to sleep at least once a week as well as insufficient sleep (less than 8 h) increased the probability of EBPs. Interactions of sleep duration with difficulties in getting to sleep on EBPs were found to be non-significant. The results suggest that caregivers and clinicians should screen and intervene for both sleep quality and quantity problems in adolescents as they might indicate and promote EBPs.


Author(s):  
Huw Peacock ◽  
Jacob Prehn ◽  
Michael A. Guerzoni ◽  
Wendy Aitken ◽  
Clair Andersen

Abstract This paper argues that a component of increasing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youths completing their secondary education is having parents and teachers maintain heightened expectations of these children in achieving this goal. To understand this phenomenon, we investigate the importance of, and discrepancies between, primary caregiver and teacher outlooks regarding Indigenous youths completing year 12. For the purpose of this paper, we adopt the term ‘primary caregiver’ in place of parent. This is because the majority (87.7%) of P1s analysed are the biological mothers with the remainder being close female relatives. P2s analysed are all male, 93.3% are biological fathers; remainder are step-fathers or adoptive fathers. This paper uses quantitative data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children to measure expectations from parents and teachers of Indigenous children. Results suggest that parents maintain exceptionally high expectations of their children, while teacher's expectations significantly decline over the course of Indigenous children's primary and secondary schooling years. We suggest that relationships and communication between parents and teachers, regarding expectations of students, are important to establishing an equilibrium in expectations of children, and that teachers may benefit from further training to address any underlying biases towards Indigenous children.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 50-52
Author(s):  
David Singh

Australian education systems have long been challenged by the gap between Indigenous and nonIndigenous student outcomes. All levels of Australian government, as well as Indigenous leaders and educators, however, continue to meet the challenge through exhortation, strategies and targets. The most prominent of such strategies is ‘Closing the Gap’, which gives practical expression to the Australian Government’s commitment to measurably improving the lives of Indigenous Australians, especially Indigenous children.


1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
Cheryl Andrews

In this paper I offer an explanation for teacher-held beliefs that contribute to perceptions of school failure by indigenous children and discuss the ends served by these perceptions. Although the validity of using retention rates as an indicator of actual educational outcomes is questioned (Luke, A. et al, 1993:144), there are few other indicators presently available. The figures on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation rates-indicate that few children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent complete secondary school. The following figures, based on data collected in the 1991 Australian Census, show the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school children of a particular sex and age expressed as a proportion of the population of children of the same sex and age, in Queensland.


2014 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 530-540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Menting ◽  
Hans Koot ◽  
Pol van Lier

Difficulties in peer acceptance during elementary school have been associated with emotional and behavioural problems. This study used a randomized controlled intervention design to test whether improvements in peer acceptance mediated reduced rates of emotional and behavioural problems in intervention compared to control-group children. A total of 615 elementary school children in the Netherlands were followed annually from kindergarten through second grade. Intervention children showed reductions in emotional and behavioural problems, and improved peer acceptance compared to controls. Improved peer acceptance mediated reductions in emotional and behavioural problem development. However, this mediation pathway held only for boys with low receptive vocabulary skills. These results indicate poor peer acceptance as a common underlying factor in emotional and behavioural problem development, particularly for children who are at risk for developing problems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brynley Hull ◽  
Alexandra Hendry ◽  
Aditi Dey ◽  
Peter McIntyre ◽  
Kristine Macartney ◽  
...  

Australian Immunisation Register data have been analysed for children aged < 5 years, focusing on changes in coverage at key milestone ages (12, 24 and 60 months) between 2017 and 2018, while also documenting longer term trends. Fully vaccinated coverage increased at the 12- and 60-months milestones to 93.9% and 94.0%, respectively, but, in the context of additional antigens required, decreased to 90.1% at 24 months. Following the move to a two-dose rotavirus vaccine schedule across Australia from mid-2017, rotavirus vaccine coverage increased from 86.8% to 90.9%. In 2018, most jurisdictions funded influenza vaccine for non-Indigenous children aged 6 months to < 5 years; the National Immunisation Program has funded influenza vaccine for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and medically at-risk children since 2015 and 2010, respectively. Recorded influenza vaccine coverage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children doubled from 14.9% to 31.4%, and increased fivefold in non-Indigenous children from 5.0% to 25.9% in 2018. The timeliness of fully vaccinated coverage was also examined at earlier milestones (3 months after due date of last scheduled vaccine) of 9, 15, 21 and 51 months, by area of residence. For all children, coverage among those living in the least advantaged residential area quintile was 3–4% lower than that for those in the most advantaged quintile at the 9-, 15- and 21-month milestones. Importantly, although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children had lower coverage for the second dose of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine at 24 months (91.8% versus 93.1% for non-Indigenous), coverage increased to 98.5% at 60 months; coverage was also high in non-Indigenous children at 96.2%, above the 95% target critical to measles control. These data demonstrate continuing improvements in immunisation coverage and suggest potential new coverage targets for earlier protection in the first two years of life.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Salmon ◽  
F. Skelton ◽  
K. A. Thurber ◽  
L. Bennetts Kneebone ◽  
J. Gosling ◽  
...  

AbstractFootprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) is a national study of 1759 Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children living across urban, regional and remote areas of Australia. The study is in its 11th wave of annual data collection, having collected extensive data on topics including birth and early life influences, parental health and well-being, identity, cultural engagement, language use, housing, racism, school engagement and academic achievement, and social and emotional well-being. The current paper reviews a selection of major findings fromFootprints in Timerelating to the developmental origins of health and disease for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Opportunities for new researchers to conduct further research utilizing the LSIC data set are also presented.


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. iii-iii
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mackinlay ◽  
Martin Nakata

We are very pleased to bring you Volume 45 of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. At this moment in time, we feel that the work of AJIE has perhaps never been more important, particularly as it relates to engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities in systems of schooling. In May this year we witnessed the evacuation of school teachers from the remote community of Aurukun, Queensland in fear of violence. A group of 15 disengaged young people had threatened the School Principal and as a consequence of the evacuation, 300 engaged children were subsequently disengaged from School for the remaining five weeks of term following the closure. There is no doubt that teacher safety is paramount, similarly, there should be no doubt that community consultation and engagement in a move like this one equally so. The questions which hang in the air relate to why such levels of disengagement exist. Why are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people disengaged from schooling in Aurukun? What makes it okay that a large number of engaged Indigenous children were forcibly made to disengage from school? Why is there such disengagement from government in engaging local people in the ways in which education business is carried out with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities? The papers in this volume of AJIE then, all speak strongly to issues of engagement – the kinds of pedagogy and curriculum that can and should be in place, the kinds of relationships that can and should be in place, and the kinds of outcomes made possible when such educational moves are made. A resounding message from all of the articles in this volume is that the on-going engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, parents, and communities is key to defining and achieving what educational success might mean for each individual child, context and classroom. This is by no means a new message, but the recent events in Aurukun remind us that it is one we must keep returning to – the stakes for complacency and forgetting are too high.


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