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Infants (<1 year old) are the age group in Australia with the highest rate of involvement with child protection. Many jurisdictions across Australia and internationally are implementing policies focused on prenatal planning and targeted support. This study investigates Australian trends in prenatal and infant child protection notifications, substantiations and out-of-home care; and the extent of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants. Data was provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the period 1 July 2012-30 June 2019. Univariate Poisson regression analysis was conducted, reporting the percentage change in the incidence rate ratios. All Australian jurisdictions who collect and approved release of prenatal notification data experienced increases in the rates of children with prenatal notifications, with a 4% (IRR: 1.04(1.04–1.05)) overall increase per year across Australia. Approximately 33% of children had substantiated prenatal notifications. Rates of infant notifications and entry to care in Australia increased overall by 3% (IRR:1.03(1.03–1.04)) and 2% per year (IRR:1.02(1.01–1.03)), respectively. With rising numbers of families reported prenatally and during infancy, greater evidence of the effectiveness of policies, interventions and outcomes for children and families is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: First, to identify which aspects of missed care accurately define the integration of care and context of care dimensions of the Fundamentals of Care Framework. Second, to test the Framework for validity and reliability and lastly, to explore how leadership influences care integration. Design: A non‐experimental research design using self‐audit data collected information about variations in nursing care as exemplars for dimensions of the Framework. Methods: A multi‐variate approach using path analysis was used to apply the consensus scores of 3079 Australian residential care nurses and carers to define the dimensions of the Framework. Results/Findings In the Australian residential care setting, the factors that define both the contexts of care and the integration of care dimensions constructs are now empirically established. The most direct predictor for the integration of care dimension arises from both the leadership and resource allocation variables, while the remaining context of care factors have indirect but significant effects. The integration of psychosocial care in the residential care sector is not influenced by any of the Framework's context‐based factors. Conclusion: The component variables of the Framework show both good reliability and convergent validity. These findings confirm a predictive relationship exists between the elements of the context of care and the different types of nursing activities that form the integration of the care dimension, including organizational leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Childhood disturbances in social, emotional, language, motor and cognitive functioning, and schizotypy have each been implicated as precursors of schizophrenia‐spectrum disorders. We investigated whether relationships between early childhood developmental vulnerabilities and childhood schizotypy are mediated by educational underachievement in middle childhood. Methods: Participants were members of a large Australian (n = 19,216) population cohort followed longitudinally. Path analyses were used to model relationships between developmental vulnerabilities at age ~5 years, educational underachievement from ages ~8 to 10 years and three distinct profiles of schizotypy at age ~11 years (true, introverted and affective schizotypy). Results: Early childhood developmental vulnerabilities on five broad domains (related to physical, emotional, social, cognitive and communication development) were associated with schizotypy profiles in middle childhood. Educational underachievement in middle childhood was associated with all schizotypy profiles, but most strongly with the true schizotypy profile (OR = 3.92, 95% CI = 3.12, 4.91). The relationships between schizotypy profiles and early childhood developmental vulnerabilities in 'language and cognitive skills (school‐based)' and 'communication skills and general knowledge' domains were fully mediated by educational underachievement in middle childhood, and the relationships with early childhood 'physical health and well‐being' and 'emotional maturity' domains were partially mediated. Conclusion: Developmental continuity from early childhood developmental vulnerabilities to schizotypy in middle childhood is mediated by educational underachievement in middle childhood. While some domains of early developmental functioning showed differential relationships with distinct schizotypy profiles, these findings support a developmental pathway to schizotypy in which cognitive vulnerability operates from early childhood through to middle childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deforestation threatens the earth's biodiversity and the ecosystem services upon which humans depend. Formal regulation is a key mechanism by which governments seek to protect forests. However, whether regulation can effectively protect remaining areas of the most threatened and most heavily cleared forests is unknown. We addressed this question using forest loss data for Queensland, Australia between 2000 and 2014 under existing vegetation clearing regulation ( Vegetation Management Act 1999 ). This regulation is specifically designed to provide the greatest protection for threatened forest types that have already lost the greatest amount of their original extent. Importantly, enforcement and governance of this regulation is relatively strong allowing an assessment of regulation design. We applied path analysis to model the direct and indirect effects (mediated by variables representing deforestation pressure) of forest protection level on clearing rates. There was strong evidence for a decline in clearing rates over time, except of clearing for non-agricultural purposes. However, threatened forest types, which have already lost > 70% of their original extent and should have the greatest level of protection under the regulation, continue to be cleared 2.7–2.9 times faster than non-threatened forest types. There was also little evidence that the regulation has driven greater reductions over time in the clearing rates of threatened versus non-threatened forests types. There was much greater support for the indirect than direct effect of protection level. This is because protection level was correlated with variables associated with deforestation pressure, resulting in higher clearing rates for threatened compared to non-threatened forest types. We hypothesise that this arises because the additional protection afforded to threatened relative to non-threatened forests is insufficient to counter the continuing higher level of deforestation pressure on threatened forests. We argue that a potential solution is to build explicit targets for forest retention into regulation, below which no further forest loss is permitted. This could be combined with spatially targeted enforcement and incentive strategies where threats are highest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about the complex combination of factors influencing the extent to which children request unhealthy foods from their parents. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive model of influencing factors to provide insight into potential methods of reducing these requests. A web panel provider was used to administer a national online survey to a sample of 1302 Australian parent-child dyads (total sample n=2604). Initial univariate analyses identified potential predictors of children's requests for and consumption of unhealthy foods. The identified variables were subsequently incorporated into a path analysis model that included both parents' and children's reports of children's requests for unhealthy foods. The resulting model accounted for a substantial 31% of the variance in parent-reported food request frequency and 27% of the variance in child-reported request frequency. The variable demonstrating the strongest direct association with both parents' and children's reports of request frequency was the frequency of children's current intake of unhealthy foods. Parents' and children's exposure to food advertising and television viewing time were also positively associated with children's unhealthy food requests. The results highlight the need to break the habitual provision of unhealthy foods to avoid a vicious cycle of requests resulting in consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of alcohol-related violence on individuals and society continues to receive attention from both media and policy makers. However, the longitudinal relationship between alcohol consumption and violence is unclear, with findings from prospective studies producing mixed results. The current study utilized Australian data from the International Youth Development Study to examine longitudinal relationships between alcohol consumption and severe interpersonal violence across the developmental periods of early adolescence to late adolescence/emerging adulthood. The full sample comprised 849 adolescents (53.8 % female) who had been followed up over a 5 year period, from Grade 7 secondary school (age 13) until Grade 11 secondary school (age 17). Cross-lagged path analysis was used to examine reciprocal relationships between alcohol consumption and interpersonal violence; analyses controlled for a range of covariates considered to be common risk factors for both behaviors. Alcohol use during early and mid adolescence was found to predict violence 2 years later, whereas a bi-directional relationship between adolescent heavy episodic drinking and violence was observed. Some of these relationships were not significant when covariates such as family conflict and affiliation with antisocial and drug using friends were included in the models. These findings suggest that risk processes begin in late childhood or very early adolescence; efforts to reduce one problem behavior are likely to reduce the other. Further, the role that social and family contexts have in influencing the relationships between alcohol use and interpersonal violence should be considered in future research to better inform preventive efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how air passengers' expectations, ticket price, airline service quality, value, passenger satisfaction and airline image determine their buying behaviour. To test the conceptual frameworks, path analysis was applied to data collected from Korean and Australian international passengers to examine differences between these two groups. Further analyses were undertaken on different passenger segments between national and foreign airline passengers. The results of the path analysis reveal that air passengers' buying behaviour differs significantly between Korean and Australian international passengers. Results also reveal that the determinants of air passengers' buying behaviour differ by airlines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a study that extends on previous empirical research, which examined the role of enabling ‘climate for innovation’ constructs in determining the level of innovation diffusion outcomes, and subsequent business performance in architectural and engineering design (AED) firms. Whilst this previous study elucidated the relationships between broad theoretical constructs, the present study was focused on targeting the significant enabling factor interrelationships with the core outcomes that result from the innovation diffusion process. To achieve this objective, a sequential mixed-method research design combining quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques was employed. The quantitative techniques included a correlation analysis to identify the strong factor relationships, followed by Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to determine the critical pathways for enhancing innovation diffusion and ultimately heightened levels of client satisfaction. Following path model extraction, qualitative interviews with five Australian AED firms were conducted. The interview findings confirmed the uncovered significant pathways, and provided in-depth insights into how the improvement of critical enabling factors could leverage improved innovation diffusion outcomes and business performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

1. Species diversity and genetic diversity are fundamental components of biodiversity. A primary goal of biodiversity studies is to explain the distribution of species and alleles in space and time. A new challenge is to cross discipline boundaries and explore the relationship between these two scales of diversity. 2. In the biodiverse northern sandplain shrublands of south-western Australia, the woody shrub Banksia attenuata occurs on patchily distributed sand dunes, and coexists with B. hookeriana, B. menziesii, and two small tree species, Eucalyptus todtiana and Xylomelum angustifolium, which together comprise a plant functional group of large shrubs/small trees. 3. Genetic variation (alleles per locus and heterozygosity) between 736 B. attenuata individuals on 27 discrete dunes was assessed using 11 polymorphic microsatellite markers. For each dune, the physical properties of area and height, and species diversity (richness and evenness) of the functional group, were measured. 4. Synthesis. Genetic diversity of B. attenuata covaried positively with species diversity, which in turn covaried strongly with dune height rather than dune area. The positive relationship between species and genetic diversity demonstrated here supports the theory of common environmental, rather than neutral, processes acting directly or indirectly on both scales of diversity, and suggests the possibility of predicting one component of diversity on the basis of the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]