Obesity in children in out-of-home care : a review of the literature

Children placed in out-of-home care are a particularly disadvantaged group in society, who have often been exposed to trauma and socioeconomic disadvantage. As a result, they experience poorer health outcomes than children in the general population, especially mental health outcomes. One health outcome that has yet to be researched thoroughly is overweight and obesity of children placed in out-of-home care. Hence, the overall goal of this paper was to review the extant literature over the last decade on weight-related issues for children in out-of-home care, with particular emphasis on overweight and obesity. The findings of the review revealed that there is a lack of rigorous Australian research in relation to prevalence rates of overweight and obesity in children in out-of-home care; there is a lack of strategies or interventions designed specifically to combat overweight and obesity in children in out-of-home care; and one of the major limitations of Australian research to date is the use of self-report measures to assess the weight status of children in out-of-home care. It was concluded that prevention and intervention strategies are needed that target children as they enter out-of-home care.

Do parents’ and children’s concerns about sports safety and injury risk relate to how much physical activity children do?

Objective To see whether concerns about injury risk relate to children's physical activity (PA).
Methods Two cohorts were recruited from 19 Australian schools and assessed in 2001 (T1), 2004 (T2) and 2006 (T3). The younger (n=162) was assessed at 6, 9 and 11years old, and the older (n=259) at 11, 14 and 16 years old. At T1 and T2, parents of the younger cohort reported on fear of child being injured, and whether child would be at risk of injury if they played organised sport; the older cohort self-reported injury fear. Accelerometers assessed PA at each time point. Linear regression models examined cross-sectional associations, and also associations between T1 injury fear and risk and T2 PA, and T2 injury fear and risk and T3 PA.
Results In the younger cohort at T2 (9 years), fear and risk were both negatively associated with moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA) (β=−0.17, 95% CI −0.30 to −0.03 and β=−0.26, 95% CI −0.41 to −0.10) and also vigorous PA (VPA). Fear was also associated with moderate PA (MPA). For the older cohort at T1, injury fear was negatively associated with MVPA (β=−0.21, 95% CI −0.35 to −0.07) and also MPA and VPA. Parental perception of risk at T1 (6 years) was negatively associated with children's MPA at T2 (9 years) (β=−0.17, 95% CI −0.32 to −0.02). Sex did not moderate any association.
Conclusions Younger children and their parents need to know which sports have low injury risks. Some children may need increased confidence to participate.

Australia's health 2006 : the tenth biennial report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

The report shows that Australians generally have good health and are privileged to have a range of health care services available to them. There are stark exceptions to this that can be confronting—even if well-known already—notably the generally much poorer health status of Indigenous Australians.

Health care service provider and funding arrangements are both increasingly complex and increasingly costly to both individuals and taxpayers. A continuing challenge is how to balance both the complementary and competitive perspectives of government and non-government agencies, professional groups, and small businesses. Overall, national expenditure on health was 9.7% of GDP in 2003–04; and average health expenditure per person has grown by an average 3.8% each year between 1997–98 to 2002–03. Expenditure on aids and appliances, health research and pharmaceuticals contributed more to this growth than other areas.

While the ageing of the population is having a significant impact on the number and type of health care services delivered, high quality services for children continue to be a priority. Australia’s health 2006 has a special chapter focusing on children and their health. The chapter highlights the fact that while our children are generally very healthy, there are concerns that their ongoing health could be affected by more and more of them becoming overweight or obese. Levels of diabetes are now rising among our children and it is a continuing concern that asthma and mental health problems affect so many of them.

Instilling postcolonial nostalgias : Ned Kelly narratives for children

This essay examines books for children focusing on Ned Kelly and the Kelly gang, published from 2000 to 2011. Drawing upon theories of narrative, memory and nostalgia it analyses the narrative strategies and visual images through which these texts position readers, and their investment in formulations of the Australian nation. The essay argues that these books function as exercises in restorative nostalgia, producing palatable versions of Kelly as an Australian hero, and articulating connections between the Kelly legend and Australian national identity. By foregrounding Kelly's Irishness and by representing him as a “good badman”, these Ned Kelly narratives for children, which range across fiction, non-fiction, picture book and play script, reinscribe versions of national identity which occlude more complicated narratives. In particular, their emphasis on struggles between Irish and English settlers, and between selectors and squatters, displaces Indigenous histories, colonial violence, and systemic discrimination against those deemed outsiders to the nation.

Dietary salt intake assessed by 24 h urinary sodium excretion in Australian schoolchildren aged 5–13 years

Objective To measure total daily salt intake using 24 h urinary Na excretion within a sample of Victorian schoolchildren aged 5–13 years and to assess discretionary salt use habits of children and parents.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Setting Completed within a convenience sample of independent primary schools (n 9) located in Victoria, Australia.

Subjects Two hundred and sixty children completed a 24 h urine collection over a school (34 %) or non-school day (66 %). Samples deemed incomplete (n 18), an over-collection (n 1) or that were incorrectly processed at the laboratory (n 3) were excluded.

Results The sample comprised 120 boys and 118 girls with a mean age of 9·8 (sd 1·7) years. The average 24 h urinary Na excretion (n 238) was 103 (sd 43) mmol/24 h (salt equivalent 6·0 (sd 2·5) g/d). Daily Na excretion did not differ by sex; boys 105 (sd 46) mmol/24 h (salt equivalent 6·1 (sd 2·7) g/d) and girls 100 (sd 41) mmol/24 h (salt equivalent 5·9 (sd 2·4) g/d; P = 0·38). Sixty-nine per cent of children (n 164) exceeded the recommended daily Upper Limit for Na. Reported discretionary salt use was common: two-thirds of parents reported adding salt during cooking and almost half of children reported adding salt at the table.

Conclusions The majority of children had salt intakes exceeding the recommended daily Upper Limit. Strategies to lower salt intake in children are urgently required, and should include product reformulation of lower-sodium food products combined with interventions targeting discretionary salt use within the home.

Physical activity levels and patterns of 19-month-old children

Purpose: It is a commonly held perception that most young children are naturally active and meet physical activity recommendations. However, there is no scientific evidence available on which to confirm or refute such perceptions. The purpose of this study was to describe the physical activity levels and patterns of Australian toddlers.


Methods: Physical activity and demographic data of two hundred ninety-five 19-month-old children from the Melbourne InFANT Program were measured using accelerometers and parent surveys. Validated cut points of 192–1672 and >1672 counts per minute were used to determine time spent in light- (LPA) and moderate-to-vigorous- (MVPA) intensity physical activity, respectively. To be included in the analysis, children were required to have four valid days of accelerometer data to provide an acceptable (>0.70) reliability estimate of LPA and MVPA. Physical activity data for different periods of the day were examined.


Results: On average, toddlers engaged in 184 min of LPA and 47 min of MVPA daily, and 90.5% met the current Australian physical activity recommendations for 0- to 5-yr-olds (180 min of LPA/MVPA per day). Physical activity levels during mid morning and mid afternoon were higher than those during other periods. Physical activity patterns for boys and girls were similar, although boys engaged in more physical activity during the morning hours than girls did.


Conclusions: Most children meet the physical activity recommendations, although the majority of activity undertaken in the study was of light intensity. Boys were more active than girls were in the morning hours, but there were no differences between sexes over the entire day. Certain periods of the day may hold more promise for intervention implementation than others do.

Shifting curves? Trends in thinness and obesity among Australian youth, 1985 to 2010

Objective To describe 25-year trends in the prevalence of ≤Grade 2 thinness and obesity among Australian children by sex, age and socioeconomic (SES) background.

Methods Cross-sectional surveys of New South Wales school-aged children aged 6.0–16.9 years conducted in 1985–1997–2004–2010 (n = 19 434). Height/weight were measured, and thinness and obesity were defined by international standards. SES was derived from children's residential postcode using the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage, most proximal to the survey year.

Results Since 1985, the prevalence of thinness has not varied by survey year. Age was not associated with thinness; however, thinness was lower among middle SES boys, compared with high SES (OR: 0.45, 95%CI: 0.21, 0.97). The prevalence of obesity trebled between 1985 and 1997 (1.7% vs. 5.1% P = 0.000); however, since 1997, obesity prevalence has not significantly changed. Since 1997, obesity was higher among younger compared with older girls (OR: 2.11, 95%CI: 1.48, 3.00) and SES was inversely associated with obesity in boys (OR: 2.05, 95%CI: 1.44, 2.92) and girls (OR: 1.86, 95%CI: 1.27, 2.74).

Conclusions The apparent plateau in child obesity is a welcome finding; however, the SES gradients are of concern. If the obesity stabilization is associated with the impact of multiple lifestyle behavioural interventions, the findings suggest obesity programmes have done ‘no harm’, but potentially the dose/delivery of interventions has not been sufficient or appropriate to reduce child obesity levels.

Children's consumption of energy dense nutrient poor foods, fruit and vegetables; are they related? An analysis of data from a cross sectional survey

Issue addressed: Many children consume excessive amounts of energy-dense, nutrient-poor (EDNP) or 'extra' foods and low intakes of fruit and vegetables. The aim of this study was to examine the associations between EDNP foods and ascertain whether certain EDNP foods and beverages are more likely to be eaten in association with other EDNP foods.

Methods: A cross-sectional representative population survey of children in preschool (n=764), and of school students in Years K, 2 and 4 (n=1,560) and in Years 6, 8 and 10 (n=1,685) residing in the Hunter New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Dietary data were collected using a short food frequency questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression models examined the association between EDNP foods and fruit and vegetable intake. Data were stratified by sex and age cohort.

Results: More frequent consumption of some EDNP food types was significantly associated with more frequent consumption of other EDNP foods. Fast food and soft drinks consumption were associated with each other as well as with fried potato and salty snacks; and with lower intakes of fruit and vegetables in some but not all age groups.

Conclusion: The positive associations found between EDNP foods point towards the existence of a high-risk group of children who frequently consume a variety of EDNP foods and drinks.

John Mystery and the Australian book trade

The John Mystery books are a collection of Australian children's books and ephemera produced by a little known publishing dynamo, Lester Sinclair, in the middle of the twentieth century. I identify factors which operated to position these items as forgotten elements of Australian literary history. After contextualizing the John Mystery brand of children's books, I suggest how children's literature scholars may find potential resources in the Children's Literature Collection and other heritage collections of the State Library of Victoria.

ipreps on ipads : exploring the visual/audio nexus of techno-literacy learners in an Australian classroom

This presentation reports on findings from a qualitative study on the use of iPads to support the literacy learning of a group of children who had just commenced their formal schooling in a regional Australian preparatory classroom. Specifically it looks at the affordances the iPad offered to enhance the oral-aural-visual communication of children not yet fluent in print based literacies. The children were interviewed about their techno-literacy learning and observed as they engaged with applications (apps). The researchers were able to video them as they demonstrated high levels of interest, energised learning and a range of independently acquired techno- literacy skills.
There is as yet little research on the use of portable personal computing devices such as the iPad in early years’ classrooms. The children in this study are shown as capable and articulate regarding their iPad use. Beyond the traditionally conceived struggle with passive print decoding when using iPads they become active creators of sophisticated multimodal artefacts that they consider worthy of acclaim, “I’m really proud of myself.” Findings from this study suggest the visual/listening nexus of popular apps potentially challenges print based literacy education approaches and existing paradigms of research and teaching/learning practice in Australian early years’ literacy education.

A middle approach to literacy in a minority Indigenous Australian language context.

Kunib-dji live in Maningrida, a remote community in the Northern Territory and speak Ndj-bbana as their preferred language of communication. Kunib-dji are one of many groups of Indigenous Australian languages who speak a minority language. Very little has been documented about the social practices of literacy with speakers of such languages, particularly with the texts that mediate these languages. Knowing about the beliefs and attitudes towards enacted by these speakers towards these texts is useful for understanding the process of learning of minority and majority languages. This paper presents a middle approach to literacy as distinct form top-down and bottom-up approaches, that has emerged from the minority Indigenous Australian language context in Maningrida. The proposed middle approach to literacy incorporates non-indigenous intervention in Indigenous social practices and technological transform of Indigenous texts. The methodological aspects of such intervention and transformation together with the implications of a middle approach to literacy are presented in this paper. Throughout the paper references are made to Kunib-dji children's access to digital Ndj-bbana texts and their engagement with these texts in a home environment.

Testing the effectiveness of mathematical games as a pedagogical tool for children's learning

In an effort to engage children in mathematics learning, many primary teachers use mathematical games and activities. Games have been employed for drill and practice, warm-up activities and rewards. The effectiveness of games as a pedagogical tool requires further examination if games are to be employed for the teaching of mathematical concepts. This paper reports research that compared the effectiveness of non-digital games with non-game but engaging activities as pedagogical tools for promoting mathematical learning. In the classrooms that played games, the effects of adding teacher-led whole class discussion was explored. The research was conducted with 10–12-year-old children in eight classrooms in three Australian primary schools, using differing instructional approaches to teach multiplication and division of decimals. A quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test was employed, and the effects of the interventions were measured by the children’s written test performance. Test results indicated lesser gains in learning in game playing situations versus non-game activities and that teacher-led discussions during and following the game playing did not improve children’s learning. The finding that these games did not help children demonstrate a mathematical understanding of concepts under test conditions suggests that educators should carefully consider the application and appropriateness of games before employing them as a vehicle for introducing mathematical concepts.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s multiplatform projects : industrial logics of children’s content provision in the digital television era

This paper traces the development of children’s multiplatform commissioning at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in the context of the digitalisation of Australian television. Whilst recent scholarship has focussed on ‘post-broadcast’ or ‘second-shift’ industrial practices, designed to engage view(s)ers with proprietary media brands, less attention has been focussed on children’s and young adults’ television in a public service context. Further, although multiplatform projects in the United States and Britain have been the subject of considerable analysis, less work has attempted to contextualise cultural production in smaller media markets. The paper explores two recent multiplatform projects through textual analysis, empirical research (consisting of interviews with key industry personnel) and an investigation of recent policy documents. The authors argue that the ABC’s mixed diet of children’s programming, featuring an educative or social developmental agenda, is complemented by its appeals to audience ‘participation’, with the Corporation maintaining public service values alongside the need to expand audience reach and the legitimacy of its brand. It finds that the ABC’s historical platform infrastructure, across radio, television and online, have allowed it to move beyond a market failure model to exploit multiplatform synergies competitively in the distribution of Australian children’s content to audiences on-demand.

"These are our children" : polyamorous parenting

Some LGBT individuals are polyamorous—that is, they have relationships with multiple partners of the same and/or the other gender. This chapter discusses the findings from an Australian focus group of 13 polyfamily participants, and also presents an overview of previous research on polyparenting. Issues of being “out” to their children, relations with extended families and friendship networks, and navigating broader societal systems and structures are the greatest concerns for polyparents. The duality of lack of visibility and fear of disclosure is examined in the context of formal societal structures such as education, health, and the law; less formal networks such as family, friends, neighbors, and social groups; and the mass media and popular culture. Another theme we discuss is how polyfamilies can be supportive environments. Shared child rearing is creating new forms of kinship structures that are beneficial to both children and adults in polyfamilies, although attachment to transient members of the family is raised as a concern. The chapter concludes with a call for more research into all facets of polyfamilies as well as the need for legitimization and resource development in social, health, educational, media, and legal institutions.

School and individual-level characteristics are associated with children's moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity during school recess

Objective: The objective of this study was to identify school environmental characteristics associated with moderate to vigorous physical activity during school recess, including morning and lunch breaks.

Methods: Accelerometry data, child-level characteristics and school physical activity, policy and socio-cultural data were collected from 408 sixth grade children (mean age 11 years) attending 27 metropolitan primary schools in Perth, Western Australia. Hierarchical modelling identified key characteristics associated with children's recess moderate to vigorous physical activity (RMVPA).

Results: Nearly 40% of variability in children's RMVPA was explained by school environment and individual characteristics identified in this study. Children's higher daily RMVPA was associated with newer schools, schools with a higher number of grassed surfaces per child and fewer shaded grassed surfaces, and the physical education coordinator meeting Australian physical activity guidelines.

Conclusions: Characteristics of the school physical and social environments are strongly correlated with children's MPVA during recess.