Objective: To explore the symptomatic features of homesickness in Australian adolescent males during their first year at boarding school, as well as its dimensionality, coping strategies, and the relationship with academic, resilience, emotional and mental health factors. Method: Drawing on a larger, longitudinal study (n = 174 students), survey…

In this study, we describe characteristics of outdoor adventure interventions (OAIs) that aim to address problem behaviors in young people in Australia. A national online survey was completed by 98 program leaders and 24 program managers. OAIs for youth in Australia are diverse, but typically incorporate several days in the outdoors, during which…

More boys than girls are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; however, there are conflicting findings about whether they differ in their presentation. This study involved a survey of parents of school-aged children on the autism spectrum (171 parents of girls and 163 parents of boys) that was distributed via social media. The surveys provided…

The association between aberrant behaviour and depression was examined in a sample of 150 young males with Autism Spectrum Disorder via parent ratings on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) and the Major Depressive Disorder subscale of the Child and Adolescent Symptom Inventory (CASI-4-D). Although several subscales of the ABC were significantly…

This article explores the cognitive processes by which Year 7 students (aged 11 to 13 years) use personal viewpoints to interpret and resolve life-issues. A Christian school located in the North West of Sydney wanted to find out if the proportionally higher occurrence of discipline issues in newly enrolled Year 7 students could be explained by…

This paper demonstrates how classroom trouble warranting teacher intervention can stem from transgressions in different layers of the complex moral order regulating classroom interactions. The paper builds from Durkheim's treatment of schooling as the institution responsible for the inculcation of a shared moral order, Bernstein's distinction…

The deleterious effects of maternal depression on child emotional and behavioral development are well documented, yet many children exposed to maternal depression experience positive outcomes. The aim of this study was to identify psychosocial factors associated with the emotional-behavioral resilience of four-year-old children of first-time…

Children with early-onset conduct problems (EOCP) and callous-unemotional (CU) traits are highly resistant to treatment and cost society significantly more than their healthy counterparts. Employing a multiple baseline design, 13 males (9.0-10.2 years of age) with a history of school suspensions were sequentially introduced to KooLKIDS, a…

International evidence indicates there may be little or no academic benefit for children who are retained, and the possibility of negative long term socio-emotional outcomes for these children. Drawing on data from the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 4464), this paper provides an Australian perspective on…

This study evaluated a parent-delivered social and emotional skills intervention--the Secret Agent Society (SAS) for children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HF-ASD). The study was a pre-post follow-up design with an 8-week baseline period and 6-week follow-up period. Participants were 38 parents and 41 children recruited from…

The objective of this study is to examine the trajectory of internalizing problems across middle childhood among a population sample of Australian children, and to understand the timing of explanatory factors related to children's development of internalizing problems, by using multiple-indicator latent growth curve modeling. Participants were…

This study investigated the relationship between children's attendance at different types of early childhood education and care programmes and their mathematical and verbal skills. Analyses of data from 1314 children participating in an Australian longitudinal study, the E4Kids project, revealed no relationship between children's verbal ability…

Three types of student misbehavior, varying in severity, were measured in self-report surveys completed by excluded students: distracting others, resisting teachers' attempts to ensure engagement with work, and aggressive behavior. Results show that excluded students exhibiting less severe misbehavior are more amenable to the logic of teacher…

Speech sound disorders are a common communication difficulty in preschool children. Teachers indicate difficulty identifying and supporting these children. The aim of this research was to describe speech and language characteristics of children identified by their parents and/or teachers as having possible communication concerns. 275 Australian 4-…

Determining the effectiveness of many special education interventions is most difficult because of the practical and ethical limitations associated with assigning participants to a control or non-treated group. Using Longitudinal Study of Australian Children data, this article utilised eight different propensity score analysis methods to determine…