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Objective: To review and summarise the evidence about and consequences of Australia's policy of mandatory indefinite detention of children and families who arrive by boat to seek asylum.Methods: This paper will summarise the accumulated scientific evidence about the health and mental health impacts of immigration detention on children and compare methodologies and discuss the political reception of the 2004 and 2014 Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) Inquiries into Immigration Detention of children.Results: The conclusions of the 2004 and 2014 Inquiries into Immigration Detention of Children are consistent with Australian and international research which demonstrates that immigration detention has harmful health, mental health and developmental consequences for children and negative impacts on parenting.Conclusion: The evidence that prolonged immigration detention causes psychological and developmental harm to children and families and is in breach of Australia's human rights obligations is consistent. This is now partially acknowledged by the Government. Attempts to limit public scrutiny through reduced access and potential punishment of medical witnesses arguably indicates the potency of their testimony. These harmful and unethical policies should be opposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the establishment of child psychology at the end of the 19th century and with its applied uses in the field of physical education. During this period psychology evolved from a philosophical field content with generalised statements about the human soul to a scientific field concerned with measuring and individuating the psyche, This paper focuses on how while psychology quickly laid claim to establishing the contours of normative menial health it was simultaneously deployed in the service of identifying and bolstering normative physical health. As interiority was systematically brought within the realm of science, the traditional metonymic connection between physicality and morality materialised into a new relationship between the self and its numerical existence. This relationship is explored here through an examination of physical-health testing in New York schools during the Progressive Era. My aim is to draw out the manifold ways in which psychological technologies were absorbed into spatial practice, supporting the claim of this theme issue that the proliferation of psychology can be traced through multiple governing practices and into specific geographies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Previous research suggests that gains in positive mental health (often termed flourishing, wellbeing, or competence) is associated with stronger academic achievement. This study examines the relationship between positive mental health at school entry and academic achievement at Grade 3, drawing on a representative sample of Australian children with linkage to results of standardized academic testing. Propensity score analysis was used and small positive associations were found between positive mental health and most academic outcomes. Associations were modest in size but sustained over the 3-year period and were similar across a range of academic skills. Future intervention research should assess the potentially wider ranging impact of targeting positive mental health outcomes in the early years of schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on consequences of child mental health and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Topics discussed include problem of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) associated with fetal alcohol syndrome, children referred to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) clinics are found to have risk exposures in addition to PAE like physical abuse and exposure to parental substance use after birth, and requirement of evidence in alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) diagnosis.

Information about several papers discussed at a meeting on the impacts of television on child health is presented. According to a Public Health consultant, violence portrayed in television is not always harmful. According to a psychologist, British television compared to its American counterpart provides authentic cultural, historical and literary information. The meeting featured several psychologists including Alan Maryon-Davis and Maire Messenger Davies.

The article focuses on a study which explores several issues concerning the emergence of problematic internet use (PIU) in childhood and youth. It uses relevant literature-search methodology as well as using the key terms of PIU, internet addiction, and youth mental health. The use of common internet search engines is discussed.

Unclear definitions and limited system-level assessment measures inhibit cultural responsiveness in children's mental health. This study explores an alternative method to conceptualize and assess cultural competence in four children's mental health systems of care communities from family and professional perspectives. Concept Mapping was used to generate relational maps reflecting indicators of cultural competence and pattern match comparisons within and across communities. Differences and similarities in conceptualizations and participant group comparisons of average statement ratings on three criteria were found among communities. An aggregated map containing 117 statements within 15 clusters of cultural competence is presented. Concept mapping offers promise for contextually conceptualizing and assessing cultural competence. Implications for practice in systems of care are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mental health function of dreaming was studied among Palestinian children and adolescents in a trauma group (N= 268) and a comparison (N= 144) group. The subjects were 6- to 15-year-old boys and girls, the mean age being 11.22 2.64. They used a seven-day dream diary to record the dreams they could recall every morning. The results suggest that compensatory dreams could moderate between trauma and psychological symptoms. Traumatic events were not associated with psychological symptoms among children whose dreams were bizarre, vivid and active, and involved joyful feelings and happy endings. A mediating model suggested that exposure to traumatic events was associated with mundane persecution and unpleasant repetitious dreams. These dysfunctional dreams were,in turn, associated with poor psychological adjustment. The dynamics of mastery and compensation dreams in traumatic conditions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Psychiatry is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the life and works of Jewish scholar Alfred A. Strauss, a pioneer in the field of studies on learning disabilities. Strauss had an experience which drew him closer to the area of mental retardation. He was interested in the area of habilitation and prepared a work "How to Recognize and Treat the Severest Forms of Mental Deficiency." The promising career of Strauss in neuropsychiatry was interrupted when dictator of Germany Adolf Hitler's rise to power prompted him to leave for Spain. He served as a guest professor at the University of Barcelona and confounded for the Catalonian government Spain's first governmental and private child guidance centers. Strauss became the director of Child Care at the Training School where he served until ill health made him resign. Before his death in Chicago on October 27, 1957, he contributed significantly as special lecturer at Wayne State University.