Australian Journal of Social Issues最新文献

HEALing Matters is an online professional development training program being implemented across the Victorian out-of-home care sector. HEALing Matters uses a trauma-informed philosophy to guide carers' understanding of the link between young people's healthy lifestyle behaviours and improved physical and psychosocial outcomes. This article reports the findings of a qualitative evaluation, which sought to understand whether participation in HEALing Matters fostered a sense of commitment, dedication and/or the introduction of new practices to create a healthy “home.” Semistructured interviews were conducted with 27 residential carers who completed the training and transcripts underwent thematic analysis. Four major themes evidencing healthy lifestyle behaviours were developed: (1) promotion of a healthy eating environment, (2) making physical activity a habit, (3) building connection through food and physical activity and (4) improved predictability and consistency. Implementation of HEALing Matters facilitated positive changes in health behaviours, supported carers to use food and activity to provide responsive caregiving and created a sense of safety and security through the introduction of household routines. The findings emphasise the importance of upskilling carers in preventative health practices and approaches to best support the health and well-being of young people in care.

Worldwide, many children experience corporal punishment. Most research on corporal punishment has focused on parents' attitudes and use of corporal punishment; however, other relevant parenting factors and practices have rarely been examined. This study explored differences among countries with various levels of progress toward a total legal ban of corporal punishment in parents' acceptability of corporal punishment, perception of parenting as a private concern, relationship with their child and parenting practices: consistency, coercive parenting, use of smacking and positive encouragement. Parents (N = 6760) of 2 to 12-year-old children from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom completed the International Parenting Survey, an online cross-sectional survey. One-way ANOVAs, and MANCOVAs (after controlling for parent age, gender and educational level), indicated significant country differences. Overall, there was no clear link between corporal punishment bans and positive parenting beliefs, practices and behaviours. The two countries where corporal punishment is banned showed different patterns. Parents in Germany showed less acceptability and use of smacking; however, parents in Spain reported the highest use of coercive parenting. Country differences suggest that beyond a legal ban, attention is needed on how to support parents to raise their children in a positive, nurturing environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created major challenges globally. The social work and human services profession has been required to rapidly respond to policy and social changes. This research aimed to understand how the pandemic has affected social work and human services staff within Melbourne, Victoria. In this paper, we analyse the practice and policy implications of these responses, and outline learning for the human services sector. We draw on interviews with social work and human services practitioners, exploring their experiences during the pandemic, including social and economic impacts on service users and agencies, and organisational and practice changes. Participants highlight compliance requirements, digitalisation of services, loss of social connection for service users and service impacts. In addition, participants highlight how people from low socioeconomic backgrounds were immensely affected throughout COVID-19 lockdowns. However, this research also identifies service benefits, resulting from the rapid adjustments made by agencies that need further exploration for future practice. This article highlights how, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, agencies and workers developed innovative responses to this crisis. Drawing on these insights can help to understand how such initiatives can be implemented in the future. This article contributes to knowledge about innovation in a time of crisis.

Achieving timely “permanency” for children after statutory child removal has become a key policy driver internationally. In New South Wales, child protection reforms include prioritising reunification; introducing time frames for resolution of legal proceedings; and outsourcing a substantial proportion of casework to the non-government sector. In assessing the viability of reunification, courts place responsibility for behaviour change on parents and obscure the role of systems in supporting these changes. Professionals, as actors within a complex system, have an insider perspective on factors that influence reunification. A qualitative study was undertaken to elicit the perspectives of professionals working with parents involved in care proceedings. A total of 29 caseworkers and lawyers took part in focus groups. Complexity theory was used as an interpretive framework, and thematic analysis was completed. Themes about barriers to reunification exposed the unintended consequences of change in a complex adaptive system. Far from making reunification more achievable by streamlining the legal process, changes introduced impediments in the form of role, goal and process confusion and low levels of professional confidence in their capacity to help parents and achieve predictable legal outcomes. These results strengthen calls for a different approach to confront system-induced barriers. Embedding interagency collaboration, challenging risk narratives about parents and offering them dedicated services are areas that demand urgent attention in order to ensure no child, whose safety and best interests could be met by reunification, remains in care.

Pathways into and the impact of homelessness on young people have been extensively explored. There is less emphasis on young people's perspectives of the interventions designed to assist them to avoid or exit homelessness. This study undertook a systematic review of the youth homelessness interventions literature that included the perspectives of young people experiencing these interventions. Our review identified five key approaches as useful in assisting young people to exit or avoid homelessness, namely (1) the centrality of relationships, (2) a youth-centred approach, (3) integrated and multi-disciplinary service provision, (4) a beyond housing approach and (5) strength-based therapeutic models/interventions. The review enhances the capacity of practitioners to provide supportive and contextually situated services to young people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. However, further research is required to understand the bundles of interconnected practices within these approaches that are performed by workers and young people to address homelessness and risk.

Australian Governments are increasingly understanding the impacts of early adversity, evidenced by ongoing policy and investment in two of the most widely implemented early interventions: nurse home visiting (NHV) and early childhood education and care (ECEC). Neither intervention fully redresses the developmental inequities engendered by early adversity, yet their synergistic impacts (“dynamic complementarity”) are unknown. In this research, we aimed to (1) inform evaluation of policy implementation by (2) experimentally testing the dynamic complementarity of NHV and ECEC. We capitalised on an opportunity afforded by the Australian “right@home” randomised trial, which involved 722 pregnant women experiencing adversity, randomised to receive NHV or usual care to child age 2 years. Detailed data describing family-accessed ECEC were collected from parents at 3–4 years, and “quality ECEC” was categorised according to meeting quality recommendations defined by Australian policy and provision. Children's developmental outcomes (language, executive functioning, behaviour and well-being) were parent-reported or assessed directly at 4 years. At 4 years, 33 per cent of families had received neither intervention; 40 per cent NHV only; 14 per cent quality ECEC only; and 13 per cent had received both. We used linear regression to estimate differences in mean outcomes between exposure groups, including interaction between NHV and ECEC. Unadjusted analyses indicated modest effects of the combination of NHV and ECEC, which attenuated after adjustment for socioeconomic confounders. We present the design and preliminary findings as an approach that could be used to evaluate equitable implementation at scale and enable policymakers to determine the most effective evidence-based policy.

Early Islamic scriptures mention the use of corporal punishment parenting strategies to rectify behaviour in children. However, many Islamic scholars strongly warn against employing corporal punishment as a discipline strategy. This discussion paper aimed to examine the misconceptions surrounding the use of corporal punishment as a parenting strategy in religious teachings and explores the sociocultural norms that act as a barrier to effective Islamic parenting practices. This discussion asserts that parenting practices engaging corporal punishment discipline strategies are not an inherent part of Islamic doctrine and both historic and contemporary Islamic scholars endorse alternative, peaceful parenting strategies in line with Islamic values. Dissemination of a holistic understanding of religious teachings regarding parenting strategies within the Muslim population is needed. It discusses the recommendations for educational opportunities to encourage and promote effective parenting strategies, which aim to avoid the use of corporal punishment in Muslim communities and nations.

Justice Reinvestment aims to prevent young people coming into contact with the criminal justice system through place-based, data-driven and evidence-based community solutions developed through community-based leadership and partnerships. The initiative also advocates for strategic changes to the justice system, with any savings reinvested into successful community programs. This paper will discuss the historical, international and local perspectives of Justice Reinvestment, recent Commonwealth funding opportunities, and how well these initiatives work for young people in New South Wales.

Concerns about institutional child sexual abuse within Jewish communities have been documented in two recent national inquiries into child sexual abuse, in Australia, and England and Wales. Yet to date, there has been little analysis of how media reporting informs public awareness of these concerns, and potential programme and policy responses. This paper examines media reports of the high-profile case of ultra-orthodox Jewish school principal Malka Leifer who was found to have sexually abused several girls in her school in Melbourne, Australia. It draws on five Australian media publications (two specifically Jewish and three mainstream newspapers), from the initial committal hearing in September 2021 until the completion of her trial and conviction in July 2023. Our findings highlight the importance of child safety processes as being aligned with the specific religious and cultural context of faith-based communities in order to be effective in preventing institutional child sexual abuse.