This systematic review investigates evidence on the association between body image concerns and weight-related behaviours of adolescents and emerging adults. It includes peer-reviewed journal articles reporting research involving body image concerns and weight-related behaviours of adolescents and emerging adults, published between 2005–2017, and located through systematic searches from four databases. This review includes studies from 11 countries or regions: United States (n = 13), Asia (n = 9), Europe (n = 8), Middle East (n = 3), South America (Brazil; n = 3), Canada (n = 3), Australia (n = 1), New Zealand (n = 1), Trinidad (n = 1), Turkey (n = 1) and Seychelles (n = 1); 24 different countries (n = 1); three Asian countries and the United States (n = 1). Out of 46 studies included in this review, 45 studies reported a positive association between body image concerns and weight-related behaviours. Adolescents and emerging adults who misperceived their weight engaged in weight-related behaviours. Higher body dissatisfaction had a significant association in the development of eating disorders and extreme weight-loss behaviours. Body image concerns play a significant role in adolescents and emerging adults engaging in weight-related behaviours. Experimental research designs are required to determine the causality of this association. Evidence strongly suggests policy makers and public health practitioners contemplate strategies to promote positive body image and healthy weight-related behaviours among adolescents and emerging adults.

The experience of paediatric asthma is associated with increased stress and emotional difficulties for both the child and family. The current study aimed to qualitatively explore parents’ views of their child's asthma experience, from initial diagnosis onwards, to enhance our understanding of how families emotionally adjust and adapt to the diagnosis and management of asthma. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 parents of children (<18 years) with physician-diagnosed asthma. Questionnaires were used to capture demographic information and anxiety symptom status of parents (State Trait Anxiety Inventory — Form Y [STAI-Y1/Y2]) and children (Spence Children's Anxiety Scale — Parent reported [SCAS-P]). Grounded theory was used to analyse the results. Analysis saw three themes emerge as important in understanding the impact of asthma on the family: (1) the experience of obtaining an asthma diagnosis, (2) parents’ belief in their competence to manage asthma, and (3) parents’ behaviour in response to the asthma. A model was developed that posits adaptive parental adjustment to asthma is determined in part by the circumstances around the time of diagnosis, the level of knowledge and skills, and the controllability of the asthma. This model can guide medical and allied health professionals to specific areas where intervention may reduce stress and emotional difficulties associated with asthma and its management for affected families.

Background: Consumer perceptions of care are a key measure of service quality. The Consumer Perceptions of Care (CPoC) survey is often used to assess patients’ evaluations of the quality of services received. Aims: The study explored the factor structure of the CPoC, the relationships between perceived quality of care, empowerment, perceived treatment outcomes, and symptom change, as well as the effect of allowing patients to self-identify during the CPoC survey on their ratings of perceptions of care. Methods: In the first phase of the current study, 2,125 psychiatric inpatients were surveyed about their perceptions of care, and their symptoms were also measured at both admission and discharge. The second phase examined 720 inpatients who had given consent so that perceptions of care could be compared with outcome data. Results: Increased levels of empowerment were associated with favourable ratings of perceived treatment outcomes. Although perceived treatment outcomes and empowerment were correlated with actual symptom change, these correlations were small. Furthermore, the influence of self-identification on ratings of perceptions of care was found to be small. Conclusions: Examining patients’ perceived and actual treatment outcomes may provide mental health service providers with a more nuanced perspective of the hospital experiences of their patients.

Professor Jay Spencer Birnbrauer peacefully passed away on November 1, 2017, aged 83, in Perth, Western Australia. Known to his friends and colleagues in Australia as ‘Birny’, he was a pioneer of applied behaviour analysis on both the Australian and world stage. He contributed to the development of behaviour-analytic technology for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the 1960s and played a central part in the formation of the Australian Behaviour Modification Association (known today as the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy) in the 1970s. He was a purist in the field of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) and was relentless in his efforts to see ABA being provided to children with a developmental disability and their families. Birny's influence in Australia, and particularly Western Australia, was mainly imparted through his role with the Master of Applied Psychology program at Murdoch University. His most widely known piece of work, the Murdoch Early Intervention Program, was an early and important replication of Lovaas's evaluation of early intensive behavioural intervention for children with autism. Birny contributed significantly to our field and to many people's lives. He is remembered often and fondly by his many friends and colleagues.