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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.

Two leading The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers will use more than $1.1 million in National Health and Medical Research Council funding to improve outcomes for some of the world’s most vulnerable children and young people.

The mental health and wellbeing of young people has important consequences for students and society. Schools are a logical environment for management and early intervention of wellbeing, mental health and engagement with school. Interventions aimed at improving mental health and wellbeing in education systems requires knowledge of how wellbeing is clustered at a school level. Cluster-randomised trials, and regression analyses of such data also require knowledge of clustering.

Trans youth are at high risk of mental health difficulties and negative life events. Strong parental support is highly protective however there is little understanding of what factors facilitate the process of parental understanding and acceptance of a child’s gender identity.

Student bullying behaviours are a significant social issue in schools worldwide. Whilst school staff have access to quality bullying prevention interventions, schools can face significant challenges implementing the whole-school approach required to address the complexity of these behaviours.

Early childhood investment decisions represent critical policy frameworks that ideally reflect a strong evidence base. This review seeks to assess early childhood intervention priorities based on return on investment without limitation by health, education or social science sector.

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.

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.

There is increasing international interest in place-based approaches to improve early childhood development (ECD) outcomes. The available data and evidence are limited and precludes well informed policy and practice change. Developing the evidence-base for community-level effects on ECD is one way to facilitate more informed and targeted community action.

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.