Sarah Johnson

Young Minds Matter

WA Department of Health Merit Awards - Project - Improving Aboriginal health disparities: the influence of education, child protection and justice systems over time and across generations

The effectiveness of a Consumer Centred Tobacco Management (CCTM) approach in enabling mental health consumers to reduce or quit smoking

The aim of this pilot study is to test if the CCTM approach is more effective than business as usual methods at supporting mental health consumers to reduce their tobacco dependence or quit smoking altogether.

A data infrastructure for improving Aboriginal life pathways: the influence of health, education, child protection and justice systems over time and across generations

Incarceration represents a source of ongoing socioeconomic and health inequity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal populations, limiting life changes and opportunities.

Cohort profile: The WAACHS Linked Data Study

Despite the volume of accumulating knowledge from prospective Aboriginal cohort studies, longitudinal data describing developmental trajectories in health and well-being is limited.

Feasibility of a Consumer Centred Tobacco Management intervention in Community Mental Health Services in Australia

This study tested a new program for helping smokers with severe mental illness to reduce their tobacco use, together with determining the feasibility of such research in community mental health settings in Australia.

The relationship between physical activity, self-regulation and cognitive school readiness in preschool children

Limited research exists on the pathways through which physical activity influences cognitive development in the early years. This study examined the direct and indirect relationships between physical activity, self-regulation, and cognitive school readiness in preschool children.

Tobacco smoking and mental disorders in Australian adolescents

This study aimed to (1) examine the strength of the association between mental disorders/mental health problems, risk behaviours and tobacco smoking among Australian adolescents, (2) compare rates of tobacco smoking among Australian adolescents with major depressive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and/or conduct disorder in 2013/14 vs 1998, and (3) identify the extent to which an association between tobacco smoking and mental health problems among adolescents can be attributed to non-mental health risk factors.

Mental-health disparities between heterosexual and sexual-minority adolescents: Examining the role of informant discrepancies

Understanding informant discrepancies and their meaning is pivotal to designing surveys that generate robust insights into the health of sexual-minority adolescents

Poverty, Parental Mental Health and Child/Adolescent Mental Disorders: Findings from a National Australian Survey

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between poverty and child mental disorders

The Great Recession and Children’s Mental Health in Australia

This paper analyzes the effects of “shocks” to community-level unemployment expectations, induced by the Great Recession, on children’s mental well-being

Access to health professionals by children and adolescents with mental disorders: Are we meeting their needs?

The typical number of visits to health professionals by children with mental disorders during a 12-month period is relatively small

Prevalence of Mental Disorders Among Children and Adolescents of Parents with Self-Reported Mental Health Problems

This paper provides Australian population-level estimates of the prevalence of parental self-reported lifetime mental disorders and past 12 month mental disorders in their children

Mental disorders in Australian 4- to 17- year olds: Parent-reported need for help

To describe the extent to which parents report that 4- to 17-year-olds with symptoms meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

The continuity and duration of depression and its relationship to non-suicidal self-harm and suicidal ideation and behavior in adolescents 12–17

Overlap between non-suicidal self-harm and suicidal ideation and behavior in young people with both symptom continuity and symptom duration implicated in this association

Maternal alcohol disorders and school achievement: a population cohort record linkage study in Western Australia

Children of mothers with alcohol use disorders are at risk of not meeting minimum educational benchmarks in numeracy and literacy, with the risk highest among Indigenous children.

Family structure and childhood mental disorders: new findings from Australia

This report provides new evidence of the relationships between family structure and childhood mental disorders in an under-researched context, Australia

The Prevalence of Stimulant and Antidepressant Use by Australian Children and Adolescents

A minority of 4- to 17-year-olds with ADHD and major depressive disorder were being treated with stimulant or antidepressant medication

Introducing ‘Young Minds Matter’

This article describes the survey, the response rates achieved and the representativeness of the sample for the Young Minds Matter survey

Efficacy of infant simulator programmes to prevent teenage pregnancy: a school-based cluster randomised controlled trial in Western Australia

The infant simulator-based Virtual Infant Parenting programme did not achieve its aim of reducing teenage pregnancy

Methodology of Young Minds Matter: The second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing

Aims, sample design, development of survey content, field procedures and final questionnaires of the Young Minds Matter study

Service use by Australian children for emotional and behavioural problems: Findings from the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing

The proportion of children and adolescents in Australia with mental disorders who used services for emotional and behavioural problems

Key findings from the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing

The prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents in Australia, and the severity and impact of those mental disorders

Self-harm: Prevalence estimates from the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing

The demonstrated higher risks in young people for continued harm or possible death support the need for ongoing initiatives to reduce self-harm

Suicidal behaviours: Prevalence estimates from the second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing

Mental disorders should be a leading intervention point for suicide prevention both in the primary health sector and in the mental health sector specifically

Parents' nonstandard work schedules and child well-being: A critical review of the literature

This paper provides a comprehensive review of empirical evidence linking parental nonstandard work schedules to four main child developmental outcomes:...

Mothers' and Fathers' Work Hours, Child Gender, and Behavior in Middle Childhood

This study examined the association between typical parental work hours (including nonemployed parents) and children's behavior in two-parent heterosexual...

Maternal work hours in early to middle childhood link to later adolescent diet quality

Previous studies on maternal work hours and child diet quality have reported conflicting findings possibly due to differences in study design, lack of a...

Study protocol for the evaluation of an Infant Simulator based program delivered in schools:

This paper presents the study protocol for a pragmatic randomised controlled trial to evaluate the impact of a school based program developed to prevent teenage