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Honorary Research Associate
The physical health comorbidities and premature mortality experienced by people with mental illness has led to an increase in exercise services embedded as part of standard care in hospital-based mental health services. Despite the increase in access to exercise services for people experiencing mental illness, there is currently a lack of guidelines on the assessment and triage of patients into exercise therapy.
Physical literacy development in early childhood, viewed by many as the foundation for lifelong physical activity engagement, is significantly influenced by parents. Our aim was to explore parents' understanding of physical literacy and gain insight into their perspectives on physical literacy promotion.
Preliminary research has found evidence to suggest alexithymia acts as a risk factor for the development of psychopathology symptoms, due to its impairing role on emotion regulation ability. Eating disorder symptoms have been extensively linked to high levels of alexithymia and emotion regulation difficulties, yet little is known about the precise mechanisms behind these interactions.
Parents must rapidly adapt goals from various aspects of their lives to accommodate the demands of the early stages of parenthood. According to the self-concordance model, having autonomous goal motives (based on enjoyment or personal goal value) should foster effective self-regulation (e.g., coping strategies), better goal management, and increase the likelihood of goal attainment, compared to controlled motives (goals driven by demands/pressures).
The transition to motherhood can be challenging, especially for first-time mothers, and can accompany maternal distress. Social support—such as that offered by peers—can be important in assisting mothers to manage such distress.
Children in out-of-home care participate in less organised sport than children from other household structures, potentially reducing opportunities for improvements in social, developmental, and health outcomes. Despite this, little is known about barriers and facilitators of sport participation for children in care. We aimed to explore carers' perspectives on the influences on children in care's participation and experiences in organised sport.
Trans individuals face elevated health risks and socio-environmental challenges, influencing their engagement in health-protective behaviors (e.g. exercise and nutrition). Despite these challenges, there is a significant gap in understanding the specific eating and exercise experiences of Australian trans adults, including barriers to healthy behaviors and healthcare experiences. This study aims to address this gap by exploring these experiences, informing targeted interventions and healthcare practices to improve health outcomes.
In this scoping review, we explore the concept of human thriving in work populations that are repeatedly exposed to high stress, elevated threat, and potential trauma-professions such as first responders and front-line military personnel. The concept of thriving, defined as the joint experience of development and success, shares some similarities with other psychological concepts (e.g., resilience, posttraumatic growth, flourishing), but is distinct due to the consideration of physical wellbeing, and success (e.g., performance).
Participation in sport is associated with a range of physical, psychological, and social benefits. However, children in out-of-home care face complex barriers to sport participation, with lower participation rates than children in other household arrangements.