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Child care at school Earlier this year, Balga Senior High School, just north of Perth, became the first school in Australia to offer its students a child-care centre on school [...]

Staying on at school The Australian Bureau of Statistics has pointed out that Indigenous students' retention rates to Year 10 improved by more than 10% during the five years from [...]

Marijuana and depression Melbourne researchers say they have found the strongest evidence yet that heavy marijuana smoking causes depression, especially in young women. To gather data, the Centre for Adolescent [...]

Naming offenders Later this year, changes to Queensland's Juvenile Justice Act will permit judges to name minors convicted of violent crimes. The proposed amendments also include new sentencing options for [...]

Sharing responsibility A new approach to stopping bullying in schools has been successful, according to research by Dr Brenda Morrison from the Australian National University. Dr Morrison's study examined two [...]

Researchers at La Trobe University's Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society have reported on a study of 400 young office-workers, hairdressers, building workers, sales assistants, tradespeople and young [...]

An Australian Council for Educational Research report, Tertiary Entrance Performance: The Role of Student Background and School Factors, has identified factors influencing young people's tertiary entrance scores. ACER conducted a [...]

Teenage binge drinking is increasing significantly, according to a new alcohol guidelines report from the National Health and Medical Research Council. The report reveals that in 1998, more than two-thirds [...]

In 2000, about 22% of sexual assault victims in central and eastern Sydney who reported for counselling had been drugged, and about 80% were young women in their late teens. [...]

A national report revealed a 17% increase in the notifications or claims of child abuse to state government human services departments of state governments in 1999-2000, compared with four years [...]

Every week, one in six Australian school children reports being bullied, according to Dr Ken Rigby, author of the recently published book Stop the Bullying: A Handbook for Schools. The [...]

A matter of vision Laptop computers for all students, schools that open 12 hours a day and seven days a week, and the abolition of old-fashioned assessments are among the [...]

Bad sports targeted In South Australia, an online program has been launched to help stamp out harassment and discrimination in sport. Among its targets are `the ugly parent', the backline [...]

Paying their way Paying their Way: A Survey of Australian Undergraduate University Student Finances, 2000 is a report on a study carried out by the Australian Council for Educational Research [...]

High-school nursing At many schools, health care provides basic first aid but can't really go much further, and students have had to suffer complex health and personal problems unassisted at [...]

Adult weapons Using a stick, strap, belt or other implement to discipline children should be outlawed in Queensland, a leading child-development expert has urged. Professor Matt Sanders, a clinical psychologist, [...]

The Smith Family, a national charity, is plugging gaps in the multi-million-dollar literacy programs of schools by recruiting teenagers to help disadvantaged students to improve their reading. The program, called [...]

According to a study reported by the Wesley Mission, families with young children are the fastest-growing group among Australia's homeless, constituting almost a third of the total number. The report [...]

The prevalence of obesity among Australian children more than tripled in a decade, and the number of children carrying excess weight has doubled. Applying a new international definition of childhood [...]

The Organisation for European Cooperation and Development's latest survey comparing education expenditure across nearly 40 countries is called Education at a Glance. Commenting on aspects of it in a feature [...]

Boys and young men released from Victorian juvenile justice centres are dying at rates 10 times those of the general community, a study has found. Young women released from custody [...]

As more women return to work, and the average working day gets longer, more Australian children are being placed in child care. According to the Australian Census of Childcare Services, [...]

The report Measures of Australia's Progress, compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (details are in 'Families', above), notes that youth suicide in Australia is at its lowest since 1984 [...]

The Salvation Army has launched an internet radio station to provide training opportunities for young people who are homeless or in other difficulties. The station, at http://www.streetradio.net, is based at [...]

In a feature article, Dr Michael Flood, a research fellow at the Australia Institute, quoted disturbing findings from a national survey of 5,000 young people aged between 12 and 20. [...]

As a growing number of school students come out as gay, schools in Western Australia are having to think about providing a safe environment. Graham Brown, from the WA Centre [...]

The Australian Government cancelled an advertising campaign that was designed to assist young people in, or at risk of, violent relationships. The campaign bad been aimed at 16-24-year-olds and was [...]

According to the Third National Survey of Secondary Students and Sexual Health, released last year, about 37% of students in Year 10 report having had oral sex, while only 25% [...]

In a new study, 3,000 16-year-olds will be tracked over five years in an effort to find out why children from welfare-dependent families become more likely than others to rely [...]

Although body piercing is becoming more accepted by adults, it is still a useful marker of risk-taking behaviour in adolescents. A survey of 4,000 adolescents, reported in the Journal of [...]

Year 11 and Year 12 students from across the country met in Canberra in March to discuss Australia's constitution and governments. The annual National Schools Constitutional Convention brings together senior [...]

The report to the Senate from an inquiry by its Community Affairs References Committee into the causes of poverty ran to 450 pages and made 97 recommendations for government action. [...]

ABC TV has been screening a new program called 'Active Kidz', which aims to have children working out in five-minute segments. The daily program is presented by two young physical [...]

On 15 February, 17-year-old TJ Hickey died when he was thrown from his bike and impaled on a fente railing in Redfern, Sydney. Consequent anger and confusion in Redfern, born [...]

In a feature article criticising unconditional welfare payments to young Indigenous people, Noel Pearson, director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, wrote (in part): 'We can keep [...]

The Brotherhood of St Laurence has released a report suggesting that private sector investment may be a key to making housing more affordable to young people and low-income earners. The [...]

Children are at risk of having a lower life expectancy than their parents for the first time in the history of Western Australia, one of the state's most respected health [...]

The Australian Government is promoting an education initiative aiming to improve the population's financial literacy. The Assistant Treasurer, Helen Coonan, said the initiative was to shape school children into 'financially [...]

In response to figures suggesting that one in five Australian teenage girls become pregnant at least once, a psychology PhD student at Flinders University, Lauren Miller-Lewis, has looked at why [...]

In New South Wales, health services and GPs are developing more youth-friendly programs after recent studies showed that NSW teenagers were reluctant to consult doctors. The Northern Rivers Division of [...]

A new type of medication, sold as Strattera, has been launched for children suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders. Strattera is unlike other medicines in that it contains no amphetamine [...]

A senior lecturer in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Newcastle, Clare Collins, says studies are indicating that the prevalence of overweight and obese children in Australia has increased [...]

The Concerns of Australian Parents is the title of a report issued by the Australian Childhood Foundation as part of a national campaign to promote the message 'Every child is [...]

Prescriptions for the amphetamine-based drug dexamphetamine, known as 'kiddie speed', have increased by 2,400% in the past decade. One million scripts were filled for low-income families alone in the past [...]

In Measures of Australia's Progress, the Australian Bureau of Statistics' second assessment of whether life has improved, particularly in the last ten years, the Bureau notes that marriage has become [...]

Professor Carol Smart, Professor of Sociology at Leeds University in the UK and a keynote speaker at a families conference in Brisbane, said 'we are witnessing a new kind of [...]

Under new legislation which came into effect in Western Australia on 22 March, people aged over 18 years caught with less than 30 grams of cannabis or with cannabis-smoking implements [...]

Alcohol abuse in hundreds of sporting clubs in Western Australia will be curbed by a program to be introduced there next year. The Good Sports Program, set up by the [...]

The South Australian child protection unit failed to investigate 25% of abuse cases reported between 1991 and 2003, according to an independent study. The consultancy report, by Health Outcomes International, [...]

An interdepartmental team has been set up to investigate all child deaths in the Australian Capital Territory. The ACT Health Minister, Simon Corbell, said the child-death review team would identify [...]