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Research

Mental ill-health and substance use bear significant public health burden on young people. Prevention is key. Trauma-informed approaches to prevention of mental ill-health and substance use demonstrate significant promise, yet it is unclear how well existing approaches work for young people targeting mental ill-health and substance use. This review aimed to assess the effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of trauma-informed mental ill-health and/or substance use prevention programs for young people.  

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Parents of trans and gender diverse (herein ‘trans’) children experience additional challenges in their parenting role relative to parents of cisgender children. Understanding and enhancing parents’ empowerment is a promising approach to support both parents and children. We aimed to develop an empowerment scale specific to parents of trans children, grounded in parents’ lived experiences. 

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Research has shown that parents of trans children face numerous challenges as they navigate their parenting role, however, little is known about the impact of these challenges on parents’ psychological wellbeing.

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Early intervention within First Episode Psychosis (FEP) recovery efforts support functional recovery in several ways, including increasing levels of (1) physical activity (2) life skills, and (3) social connectivity. Sport has been proposed as an ideal platform to target these three goals simultaneously.

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Parental support is strongly correlated with protective factors for trans youth yet most experience parental rejection or ambivalence regarding their gender. Many parents report a desire to support their child but indicate lack of understanding and support as key barriers. We aimed to develop a nuanced understanding of the challenges and facilitators experienced by Australian parents in developing understanding, support and acceptance of their child’s gender and their needs to do so.

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Parental support is strongly correlated with protective factors for trans youth, however, most experience unsupportive parental attitudes. We aimed to better understand how youth perceive parental reactions to their gender identity disclosure and what they consider to be barriers to, and facilitators of, support.

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Parents of children with physical/mental health and/or neurodevelopmental conditions often need to make disclosure decisions for their child. Disclosure can bring benefits (e.g., support) but can also risk harm (e.g., stigma). This systematic review aimed to consolidate research regarding parents' disclosure experiences to better understand how to support parents during this process.

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Minority stress models and trauma-focused approaches have predominated our understanding and responses to health disparities among sexually and gender diverse (SGD) young people for more than 30 years. While the impacts and root causes of adversities are undoubtedly critical for promoting SGD health and well-being, it is important to highlight strengths-based narratives of the lives of SGD youth.

Research

Penelope Helen Yael Strauss Morgan Perry BA, MPH, PhD BA (Hons), Doctor of Psychology BPsych (Hons) MPsych (Clin) PhD Research Fellow in Youth

Research

This research aims to improve the mental health of LGBTQIA+ individuals through enhanced inclusive practice training for trainee health professionals.