It is argued that much needed policies and practices to counter bullying in Australian schools should be based upon a realistic appraisal of what is known through research into the nature of the problem. This article provides a review of relevant Australian research between 1991 and 1996 conducted primarily by the author and co-workers, drawing particularly on school children’s reports and experiences and their perceptions of what can be done; finally it discusses steps that can be taken to reduce bullying in schools.

The Polyvagal Theory helps us understand how cues of risk and safety, which are continuously monitored by our nervous system, influence our physiological and behavioral states. The theory emphasizes that humans are on a quest to calm neural defense systems by detecting features of safety. This quest is initiated at birth when the infant needs for being soothed are dependent on the caregiver. The quest continues throughout the lifespan with needs for trusting friendships and loving partnerships to effectively co-regulate each other. The Polyvagal Theory proposes that through the process of evolution, social connectedness evolved as the primary biological imperative for mammals in their quest for survival. Functionally, social connectedness enabled proximity and co-regulation of physiological state between conspecifics starting with the mother-infant relationship and extending through the lifespan with other significant partners. The theory explains why feeling safe requires a unique set of cues to the nervous system that are not equivalent to physical safety or the removal of threat. The theory emphasizes the importance of safety cues emanating through reciprocal social interactions that dampen defense and how these cues can be distorted or optimized by environmental and bodily cues.

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care are known to have poor educational outcomes compared to their non-care peers. Yet little is known about the experiences or needs of the small numbers of Australian care leavers who enter higher education. This article critically examines existing Australian and international research on the access of care leavers to higher education. A group of pre-care, in-care, transition from care and post-care factors are identified as either hindering or assisting care leavers to maximise their educational opportunities. Some specific policy and practice reforms are recommended to enhance opportunities for Australian care leavers to participate in and complete higher education.

The emerging phenomenon of youth ‘sexting’ presents a range of unique legal, policy and educative challenges. In this article we consider four key issues in recent responses to youth sexting behaviours: (1) the definitional dilemmas surrounding the term ‘sexting’; (2) the inadequacy of existing legislative frameworks for responding to these behaviours; (3) the problematic messages conveyed in anti-sexting campaigns; and (4) the relative silence around gender-based violence in non-consensual and abusive encounters. We argue that the non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images has largely been framed in public debates as a problem of youth naiveté, with the effect of censuring young women's ‘risky’ sexual behaviour, and leaving unproblematised gender-based violence. We suggest that more nuanced understandings of sexting that distinguishes between the consensual and non-consensual creation and distribution of sexual images must inform legal, policy and education-based prevention responses to the misuse of new technologies.

Young people ‘ageing out of care’ have to manage multiple transitions – leaving ‘home’, moving into independent accommodation, leaving school and trying to find work or some other means of support, becoming financially independent, and often becoming parents - at a much younger age and with fewer resources and supports than other young people their age. This paper presents the findings of the fourth interview in the follow-up to the Longitudinal Study of Wards Leaving Care study in New South Wales, and focuses on three main questions. How were these young people faring 4–5 years after leaving care compared with other young people their age? How were they faring compared with their circumstances and outcomes 12 months after leaving care? What predicted better outcomes and not-so-good outcomes? While the pattern of low levels of educational attainment, and high rates of unemployment, mobility, homelessness, financial difficulty, loneliness and physical and mental health problems was consistent with that from other research in England, Ireland, Canada and the United States, some young people were faring quite well and much better than others. Understanding why is important in trying to support young people leaving care. The paper highlights some of the implications for policy and practice.

This paper outlines a three-year collaborative research project which aims to involve children and young people, as well as other stakeholders, in exploring strategies to meet the needs of children in care. In this paper we identify some research findings which indicate the importance of children participating in the defining of their needs in care, if these needs are to be responded to more effectively than has been the case in the past. We describe the aims of our three-year project and identify some of the methodological issues of implementing stage one of the project in terms of children’s participation. A conceptual framework is developed to clarify issues related to children’s participation in research and decision making and as a basis for deciding on appropriate research methods to employ in the first stage. Rather than merely outlining the work we have so far undertaken, we have insteadfocussed on reflecting on and analysing the theoretical and methodological challenges to researchers in implementing collaborative and participatory research in decision making with children.

This paper explores the relationship between family environment and behaviour of primary school children living in three family contexts. It uses data from studies including children of married heterosexual couples, cohabiting heterosexual couples and homosexual couples, and examines the extent to which these children differ with regard to scholastic achievement and aspects of social development. It shows that in the majority of cases, the most successful are children of married couples, followed by children of cohabiting couples and finally by children of homosexual couples.

Across the eight jurisdictions of Australia, mandatory reporting obligations and thresholds for reporting vary. Teachers are one group of the professionals who are mandated to report child maltreatment, yet some teachers are still reluctant to make such a report. This paper examines the barriers that discourage teachers from reporting child maltreatment and also whether teachers consider it necessary to question a child about the maltreatment before they decide if a report should be made. Thirty semi-structured interviews with Victorian primary school teachers were thematically analysed and revealed that inadequate and inconsistent mandatory reporting training, the need for certainty before initiating a report and the ambiguous concept of neglect were barriers to teachers identifying and reporting child maltreatment. Analyses further revealed that teachers gather evidence to confirm or disconfirm their suspicions of maltreatment by questioning the suspected child victim. The consequences of this practice are discussed along with recommendations to help overcome the barriers to making a formal report when child maltreatment is suspected.

It is recognised internationally that children in out-of-home care (‘children in care’ or ‘children looked after’) generally have lower educational attainments than other pupils. This article provides two forms of evidence that challenge the view that care status in itself can explain this ‘attainment gap’. A systematic review of 28 studies was conducted to assess the evidence on whether being in care is detrimental to young people's educational outcomes. This is complemented by an analysis of administrative data from England, which compares the educational outcomes of children in care at age 16 to those of children in the general population and to other children supported by social services. Taken together, the findings suggest that while research demonstrates an important attainment gap between children in care and children in the general population, this difference is reduced and in many cases disappears when other important factors are taken into consideration to reduce selection bias. We find little evidence that being in care is detrimental to the educational outcomes of children looked after, but suggest that given the heterogeneity of the population, special attention should be paid to different groups of children and their particular needs while in care.

Research to date has found that natural parents may be an important source of identity and support for children in and young people leaving out-of-home care. There has, however, been limited research on natural parents themselves, both internationally and in Australia.

This paper provides a justification for a research focus on parents, documents what is known from research to date, highlights current issues for parents and their children in out-of-home care, and concludes by identifying future research priorities in the area. The paper calls for recognition of the need to maintain positive links between natural family members in order to ensure best practice outcomes for children and young people in care.

Kinship care as a form of protective care in Australia has grown considerably over the past decade. The University of Melbourne Family Links: Kinship Care and Family Contact research project comprised a survey of kinship carers and consultations with key stakeholders. Given the significant over-representation of Indigenous children in kinship care arrangements, the project included a nested study of Indigenous kinship care. Research participants stressed the imperative for Indigenous children to be connected to family, community and culture. However, survey responses indicated that in many cases, family and cultural connections were not being assisted by cultural support planning. Indigenous caseworkers described the complexities of facilitating family contact, highlighting good practice as well as dilemmas and shortcomings in culturally sensitive practice. There was much evidence of the straitened circumstances of Indigenous kinship carers and unmet support needs among carers, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Suggestions are made about ways in which children in kinship care might be better supported to maintain their family relationships.

The Discovering Relationship Using Music, Beliefs, Emotions, Attitudes & Thoughts (DRUMBEAT) program used drumming as a way of engaging at risk youth in a form of musical expression, while simultaneously incorporating themes and discussions relating to healthy relationships with others. The program targeted young people who are alienated from the school system. An evaluation was undertaken with a sample of 60 program participants in Western Australia's Wheatbelt region. The evaluation used both quantitative and qualitative methods, including informal discussions with staff and participants, observation, participant and teacher questionnaires, and school attendance and behavioural incident records. Pre- and postintervention data were collected on self-esteem, school attendance, antisocial behaviour, and levels of cooperation and collaboration. Students participating in DRUMBEAT increased their scores over a range of social indicators that act to increase connection with the school community. The results support the underlying program theory, that combining the therapeutic potential of musical expression with basic cognitive–behavioural therapy can be used successfully to deliver a range of social learning outcomes, including emotional control, improved relationships and increased self-esteem. Further longitudinal studies are required to assess the sustainability of the measured outcomes and their vulnerability to external factors.

In this article we use qualitative data drawn from a sample of child protection cases to demonstrate how the process of attributing blame to parents and carers for child maltreatment is a significant influence on decisionmaking, sometimes to the detriment of assessing the future safety of children. We focus on two cases which both demonstrate how the process of apportioning blame can lead to decisions which might not be considered to be in the best interests of the children concerned. We conceptualise blame as an ‘ideology’ with its roots in the discourse of the ‘risk society’, perpetuated and sustained by the technology of risk assessment. The concept of blame ideology is offered as an addition to theory which seeks to explain the influences on decision making in child protection practice.

Whilst teachers are increasingly being asked to provide ‘care’ for students in their classrooms, very little research has explored what care might look like for students with migrant or refugee backgrounds. This paper reports on the findings of a study conducted with children when they began school in Australia in the Intensive English Language Program (IELP), with a focus on how care might be provided and defined. Participants were 63 migrant or refugee children aged between 5 and 13 years of age (M = 7.40 years, SD = 2.39), and 14 IELP teachers. The aims of the broader study of which this paper forms one part were to explore experiences at school through a mixed-methods, participatory methodology. The current paper takes a deductive approach, and focuses specifically on the relationships between students and teachers as one dimension of care for students. We found that students had positive relationships with their teachers, and reported feeling safe at school. Teachers reported some challenges in relation to their relationships with students, particularly in the case of students with refugee backgrounds. We suggest that the concept of care for children with refugee and migrant backgrounds needs further work, particularly in mainstream education settings.

The purpose of this study was to examine the degree of disruption experienced by 235 children aged 4–17 years placed into substitute care in South Australia during 1998–1999. Key measures of disruption included: the frequency of placement changes, the number of children forced to change school, the geographical distance from birth families, and the amount of planned contact between children and families during the placement. Parental contact was reduced when children were victims of abuse, but more likely when children were placed because of parental incapacity. Changes in school were more likely when children were older or were placed a long way from their families. Geographical dislocation was, as expected, more likely to be a feature of rural placements, although there were no rural-metropolitan differences in the nature and frequency of family contact. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.

At the present time in Australia, there is much discussion about attachment and trauma-informed therapeutic residential care (TRC) programmes. The discussion includes a continuing reference to the high cost of this form of care by comparison to foster family care. This comparison assumes that both services serve the same population which this paper disputes. The emergence of TRC as one option in the continuum of care also raises issues about how a residential care (RC) workforce might be educated and trained for these programmes. This is particularly important given the mental health and behavioural difficulties the population of young people referred to TRC programmes, frequently display.

The recent collection of out-of-home care data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has enabled an analysis of placement trends for the three year period 1993-1996. Significant findings include a sharp increase in overall numbers of children placed into care and a continuing decline in the use of residential/group care. The data are considered in the context of longer term placement trends and some implications for service delivery are discussed.

While there has been a plethora of international and Australian research and inquiries into child protection and, to a lesser extent, foster care, there is a paucity of Australian research undertaken with the parents of children in care. While these parents are stakeholders in a system that has had a profound effect on their lives, their views are not generally canvassed. This paper discusses key findings of a community welfare Honours study which explored the experiences of six women whose children had been removed into foster care. The paper focuses on two core themes: firstly, the mothers' sense of betrayal when their pleas for help ultimately led to them losing their children, and, secondly, despite the resultant loss, grief and anger, their compulsion to do whatever it takes to have contact with, and to be reunited with, their children. The paper concludes with key messages and recommendations for practice.

This study aims to explore the coping strategies of preschoolers, by asking 4-year-old children (N = 46) at an early learning centre in Melbourne to describe their coping strategies when dealing with seven age-appropriate challenging situations. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed. The results indicated that preschoolers could articulate coping strategies that are theoretically clustered into productive and nonproductive coping styles. The capacity to identify a range of coping strategies related to specific situations has implications not only for theory development, but also for the design of effective prevention and intervention programs to help children more effectively deal with life challenges.

This paper reports on the systematic search and review of the literature relating to the health and wellbeing of young children across the transition to school. It identified 56 papers (including empirical studies, reviews, commentaries, and reports) relevant to the research questions and completed an interpretive systematic review to ascertain the current state of the literature. The review employed the Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS) method to allow for a rigorous and systematic review of a disparate literature which stretches across several disciplines. The findings are presented in seven thematic categories: current conceptualisations of health and wellbeing, assessment and measurement, ‘school readiness’, service integration, transition actors, ‘at risk’ children, and child voice. These findings illustrate the ways in which concepts have been constructed, identified, and operationalised in early years research, practice, and policy. Moreover, it highlights that ‘what is known’ can be used to inform the review or implementation of services, practices, and partnerships that support child health and wellbeing during the transition to school.