The musical and social benefits of community choir membership in Melbourne (Australia)

Social and emotional wellbeing in Indigenous Australians: identifying promising interventions

Objective: 

Just call me dad: health and social benefits to fathers and their children

In the past 20 years, social change and expectations for both maternal and paternal responsibilities have highlighted the need for services for families to better understand the role of a father in family relationships. In Australia, as well as internationally, there have been many contested understandings about what constitutes ‘good fathering’ in research, social media and in the political sphere. More specifically, there has also been an emerging trend to understand the challenging task of recruiting and maintaining men's involvement in child and family services programmes, particularly those fathers who are deemed a risk to children and mothers, violent or have been separated from their children. That many child and family/welfare services have exercised dedicated effort to work with fathers is still a relatively recent phenomenon, and has only emerged following criticism that services have been too geared towards working only with mothers. Despite this increasing interest, there is still ongoing need for more research to be undertaken in Australia. An important area of focus is the views of professionals about their perception and engagement of fathers, particularly the views of fathers who are described as being absent from family-based services. The purpose of this article is to report briefly on a study undertaken to examine how child and family welfare workers engage fathers in their work. First, this paper will describe some of the social and health benefits to fathers and their children, focusing on the key role of attachment through play. Research into effective service delivery involving fathers will then be presented, concluding with key practice factors necessary for fathers to be involved in family life.

Personal, musical and social benefits of singing in a community ensemble: three case studies in Melbourne (Australia)

Australia has a diverse, multilayered society that reflects its rich musical life. There are many community choirs formed by various cultural and linguistically diverse groups. This article is part of an ongoing project, Well-being and ageing: community, diversity and the arts (since 2008), undertaken by Deakin University and Monash University, that explores the cultural diversity within Australian society and how active music engagement fosters well-being. The singing groups selected for this discussion are the Skylarkers, the Bosnian Behar Choir, and the Coro Furlan. The Skylarkers and the Bosnian Behar Choir are mixed groups who respectively perform popular music from their generation and celebrate their culture through music. The Coro Furlan is an Italian male choir who understand themselves as custodians of their heritage. In these interpretative, qualitative case studies semi-structured interviews were undertaken and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. In this approach there is an exploration of participants’ understanding of their lived experiences. The analysis of the combined data identified musical and social benefits that contribute to participants’ sense of individual well-being. Musical benefits occurred through sharing, learning and singing together. Social benefits included opportunities to build friendships, overcome isolation and gain a sense of validation. Many found that singing enhanced their health and happiness. Active music making in community choirs and music ensembles continues to be an effective way to support individuals, build community, and share culture and heritage.

A review of evidence-based evaluation of measures for assessing social and emotional well-being in indigenous Australians

Addressing low levels of social and emotional well-being (SEWB) in Indigenous communities has been a national strategic priority for over 10 years and yet progress in assessing the impact of interventions has been slow. One of the key factors limiting the development of evidence-based practice has been the lack of well-validated instruments to assess SEWB and how it changes over time as a result of intervention. This article systematically reviews available measures, classifying them in terms of the evidence base that exists to support their use. It is concluded that there is an ongoing need to develop psychometrically sound, comprehensive, culturally appropriate measures to operationalise Indigenous SEWB at a population health, programme evaluation, and clinical level. It is suggested that seven pathways be followed to achieve this goal, including the need to recognise that the gold standard status for Indigenous measurement tools cannot be ascribed based on evidence-based assessment criteria alone.

Family day care educators’ knowledge, confidence and skills in promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing: baseline data from Thrive

THIS PAPER PRESENTS BASELINE data from Thrive, a capacity-building program for family day care educators. Educators completed a self-report survey assessing knowledge and confidence in promoting children’s social and emotional wellbeing. An in-home observation was used to assess care quality. Twenty-four educators responded to the survey (40 per cent response rate). They had an average of nine years’ experience and 82 percent held childcare qualifications. Educators reported knowledge of, on average, three early signs of social and emotional problems in children, three risk factors and two protective factors. Using a scale from 0-10, mean educator confidence levels ranged from an average of 6.69 to 7.25. Quality of care ratings were moderate. Although educators had a good understanding of children’s social and emotional wellbeing, the study identified opportunities for significant changes in the quality of the educators’ interactions with children in their care and their professional development.

The influence of social disadvantage on children's emotional and behavioral difficulties at age 4-7 years

Objective To examine associations between indicators of social disadvantage and emotional and behavioral difficulties in children aged 4-7 years. Study design This cross-sectional study was based on data collected in a questionnaire completed by parents of children enrolled in their first year of school in Victoria, Australia, in 2010. Just over 57 000 children participated (86% of children enrolled), of whom complete data were available for 38 955 (68% of the dataset); these children formed the analysis sample. The outcome measure was emotional and behavioral difficulties, assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Total Difficulties score. Logistic regression analyses were undertaken. Results Having a concession card (a government-issued card enabling access to subsidized goods and services, particularly in relation to medical care, primarily for economically vulnerable households) was the strongest predictor of emotional and behavioral difficulties (OR, 2.71; 95% CI, 2.39-3.07), followed by living with 1 parent and the parent's partner or not living with either parent (OR, 1.93; 95% CI, 1.58-2.37) and having a mother who did not complete high school (OR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.11-1.45). Conclusion These findings may assist schools and early childhood practitioners in identifying young children who are at increased risk of emotional and behavioral difficulties, to provide these children, together with their parents and families, with support from appropriate preventive interventions.

Programs to improve the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities

Attending to the social and emotional wellbeing of those from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural backgrounds is widely recognised to play a key role in effective social work practice. However, relatively little is currently known about what effective practice comprises, and significant challenges exist in any effort to demonstrate that programs do achieve significant change both for individual participants and the communities in which they live. This paper considers one program, Seasons for Healing, to illustrate the type of intervention that holds promise when working with adults and discusses the difficulties that arise in both defining and assessing program outcomes.

Building the capacity of family day care educators to promote children’s social and emotional wellbeing: Results of an exploratory cluster randomised-controlled trial

© 2015 Early Childhood Australia Inc. All rights reserved. THIS PAPER PRESENTS THE results of an exploratory cluster randomised-controlled trial that was used to pilot Thrive, a capacity-building program for family day care (FDC) educators. Participants were educators and coordinators from one FDC service in Melbourne, Australia. Data collection consisted of a survey including information on costs, an in-home quality of care observation and process evaluation. Data was collected over 12 months (2011–2012), at baseline and one, six and 12 months post-intervention. Positive caregiver interaction scores increased over time for the intervention group: F (3, 51.69) = 3.08, p < 0.05, and detached interaction scores decreased over time: F (3, 51.19) = 2.78, p < 0.05. Educators’ knowledge and confidence in children’s social and emotional wellbeing showed no significant change. Thrive gives important information about the challenges FDC educators face and is relevant to implementing changes in their education and support. For a program like Thrive to be successful in engaging educators, a stronger framework for supporting additional learning activities at both the FDC organisational and scheme level is warranted.

Teachers’ perspectives and practices on social and emotional learning: multiple case study approach

 This thesis has explored how Preparatory teachers in two Victorian primary schools understand and implement social and emotional learning in their classrooms. The findings of this research indicated that the participating teachers paid more attention to children's social skills rather than to their emotional skills. Another important finding was that social and emotional learning has a very limited place within the policies and the curricula of the participating schools.