Social and Emotional Development Blog

Perhaps it’s my early career journalistic background, but I love the journey of discovery following a lead.  It’s a bit like a word association game where each key word opens up another line of inquiry.

In this case, my journey of discovery started a couple of weeks back when I was looking up the speakers presenting at the upcoming Happiness and its Causes Conference to be held in Sydney 1-2 March (which I also cited in my most recent blog Recent and upcoming opportunities to “accentuate the positive” and at which Professor Martin Seligman, founder of the positive psychology movement, is also presenting).

Scrolling down the list of speakers, I came across the name of an “out of left field” presenter Andrew O’Keefe (not the television presenter and chair of the White Ribbon Day Campaign targeting violence against women and children – although, interestingly, many of the presenters at this conference do indeed appear to have a media background).

This particular Andrew O’Keefe has a background in industrial relations and human resource management and now runs a management consultancy firm called “Hardwired Humans” based on the importance of understanding primal human instincts in modern day business practices. Continue reading →

So much of our reporting and analysis of child development and behaviour these days seems to focus on the down side – “how poorly are our children faring”, “how can we prevent negative outcomes” and/or “how can we reduce the impact of adverse family, peer and social influences on children’s lives?”

I’m a somewhat recent convert to an alternative line of questioning – “how can we optimise the development of our children and young people?” (so that they do indeed become the best they can be, rather than just “less worse”).

From my reading this, more positive, orientation to children’s development seems to be commanding an increasing share of public (research, policy and practice) attention, both in Australia and internationally.

I’ve listed below some upcoming events where the focus is very much on “accentuating the positive”.  If any readers have any other relevant events to share, please post them in the comments section for the benefit of us all. Continue reading →

I’ve been working on a blog post about promoting positive mental health at a population level but my train of thought has been interrupted by the outbreak of youth rioting in England so I thought I’d circulate some of the commentary that’s currently being bandied around… while the issue is still so hot on the presses!!! 

Our voracious 24/7 media have been seeking out the views of just about anyone who cares to proffer a comment on what’s going on, and what’s caused it.  No doubt many of the same arguments will be put in the inevitable inquiries and investigations that follow.

So far the debate seems to be polarising around whether responsibility rests at the feet of anti-social individuals and their families (so-called criminal elements), or whether more pervasive social forces are at play.  

Of course, it’s not simply a case of either/or and multiple factors are implicated (but nuanced complexity is not the stuff that feeds a compelling news story). Continue reading →

Don’t you just love it when you come across a report that succinctly distils and synthesises all the evidence about different dimensions of a complex social issue… especially when you’ve been struggling to do the same thing yourself, perhaps somewhat less succinctly, from a whole host of disparate sources?

EUREKA … I came across just such a report the other day, hot off the presses from the office of the New Zealand Chief Scientist, Professor Sir Peter Gluckman.

Launched on 1 June 2011, the report “Improving the transition: Reducing social and psychological morbidity during adolescence” was commissioned by New Zealand’s Prime Minister in response to mounting concerns about the worryingly high number of young New Zealanders apparently not travelling too well in the transition from childhood to adolescence and beyond.  (I’ll include the link later).

It’s a substantial report – all 307 pages of it – but easy to navigate and digest, and eminently readable. 

Structured under 22 chapters of around 15 pages a piece, each chapter reviews the evidence on different developmental factors and influences operating at an individual, family, social and/or cultural level. 

The first six chapters (dealing separately with topics such as the impact of puberty; the development of social and emotional competency; self control; conduct problems; resiliency; and life skills education) set the context for a more targeted focus in subsequent chapters on the needs of different population groups; specific risks; and the various social, emotional and behavioural challenges confronting young people in modern day society.

A 17 page synthesis report up-front captures the main points, while the concluding chapter “considers the issues that arise in the translation of research-based evidence into effective applications, policies, programs and interventions”.

Here’s the link to the report  … but I’ve also included some other useful information and relevant links later in the blog if you care to read on. Continue reading →

Over the past couple of months, I’ve purchased two copies of the book Eight steps to happiness based on the ABC TV documentary series Making Australia Happy.

The first copy I bought was for a person I, somewhat arrogantly, considered actually needed an eight step course in “not being quite so grumpy”.

Rarely do I read before wrapping but, in this case, I did … only to conclude that, before so readily preaching to others, perhaps there was some wisdom in that old adage “physician heal thyself”, after all.

So I kept the thumbed through copy for myself, and purchased a second copy for the originally intended recipient, this time with a more gracious and generous frame of mind.

The book is written for the lay person with exercises and personal stories. But it’s also backed up by solid research evidence that resoundingly confirms the relationship between a healthy mind and a healthy body and vice versa.

The book and TV series are based on the principles of Positive Psychology championed by Dr Martin Seligman a former President of the American Psychological Association and now director of the Positive Psychology Centre based at Pennsylvania University.

According to the Centre website:

“Positive Psychology is the scientific study of the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive”.

Dr Seligman’s bio reports his mission as being to train positive psychology practitioners whose primary focus is on making the world “a happier place”, in the same way that clinical psychologists in the past have worked to make the world “a less unhappy place”. Continue reading →

In my blog post last week, I summarised a lightening tour of some of the recent mental health budget announcements (including the priority afforded to mental health in the 10 May Commonwealth budget.

In an opinion piece in today’s Australian newspaper, mental health advocate and 2010 Australian of the Year, Professor Patrick McGorry also responded to the Commonwealth Government’s mental health budget announcements (largely favourably) in which he described the increased budget funding as a “down payment on mental health reform” that represented a “crucial…beginning” … “to build strength in early intervention models for young people”.

Continue reading →

Flicking through this Saturday’s West Australian newspaper (7 May 2011), I came across an important article (on page 64 in the features section) that almost escaped my attention.

The article was written by Western Australia’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Michelle Scott, reporting on the outcomes of the inquiry she has recently completed into the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people in WA.

The report of the inquiry had been tabled in the Western Australian Parliament two days previously on Thursday 5 May 2011.  

Having since looked up the web link to the report (all 197 pages of it), I would highly commend it to readers of this blog.  Here’s the link to the inquiry report as well as the link to ARACY’s submission to the inquiry both of which I’ve also posted at the end of this blog for those who care to read on before clicking.

Continue reading →