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An increase of parents choosing to home school their children within Australia and changing motivations to do so, has been suggested, however national figures of home school student registrations have not been available and quantitative data is minimal, resulting in a risk of unvalidated assumptions informing the industry. Our study collated a national student registration figure for home education within Australia covering the years 2018-2022 and showing percentage increase and a growth rate exceeding other schooling options. In addition, we modernised the Enrolment Motivation Questionnaire (Collom, 2005) updating it for theoretical developments to investigate the motivations of Australian parents who choose home schooling both pre and post-Covid. This analysis revealed two significant differences: after the advent of Covid, parents were motivated to home school their children due to school absences and child's health, compared to before Covid. We discuss the finding that home education is currently the fastest growing schooling modality in Australia and how parents' schooling choice is changing to be more child-centric, offering factor analysis results which support this addition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims Context Approach Conclusion This commentary aims to assist emerging leaders of mental health research with older rural Australians through (i) affirmation that others share the barriers, pitfalls and challenges being faced; (ii) reinforcing the rationale making this a pertinent area for research; and (iii) opening a dialogue for best practice to engage older rural Australians in mental health research.Supporting the mental health of older adults is a pertinent global challenge, none more so than in rural Australia where restricted access to services and supports are compounded by limited help‐seeking behaviours and capacity to engage with support. Paradoxically, such limitations also extend to impact researchers' ability to engage rural older Australians in mental health research, particularly when combined with the stoicism and stigma that often envelopes mental health, and the contemporary challenges posed by the emergence of technology. Such challenges are however not often discussed, more‐often sidelined in favour of reporting positive research outcomes, or seeing emerging researchers eschew such focus entirely.Through this paper, the authors utilised critical self‐appraisal and iterative reflection to identify four recommendations for undertaking contemporary mental health research with rural older Australians, namely to: plan realistically through a collaborative, authentic and respectful approach; identify community champions and build/maintain trust; diversify thought, approaches and methodology; and cast the research net far, wide and often.By adopting recommendations, researchers can maximise accessibility to and possible participation in mental health research, providing foundations for older rural Australians' contributions to inform the development of policies and strategies to promote their health and well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]