Publications
KidsMatter Primary is committed to promoting the great work of schools in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of Australian primary school-aged children. As part of this, KidsMatter Primary regularly contributes articles to relevant publications. These publications inform the general public and wider research community about the success of KidsMatter, and influence new mental health initiatives and services for children around the world.
General publications
Promoting the mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous children in Australian primary schools [PDF, 1MB]
This review has been undertaken to inform the adaptation of the KidsMatter resources for Indigenous
students and their families. It draws on current literature and research to consider the issues affecting the mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous Australian children and associated implications for schools.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2011. Online ISBN: 978-1-74241-521-5
The KidsMatter school psychologists’ survey: Report of findings (2011) [PDF, 744KB]
This report outlines the findings of a survey of school psychologists regarding their views on promotion, prevention and early intervention initiatives in primary schools, and KidsMatter Primary in particular.
Impressive evaluation results lead to significant expansion of KidsMatter (2009) [PDF, 142KB]
This article documents the upscaling of the KidsMatter initiative following successful pilot evaluation.
© 2009 The Australian Psychological Society Limited. InPsych, 31(6): 22-24. Reproduced with permission.
KidsMatter national expansion: a partnership between education and health (2009) [PDF, 108KB]
This article provides an overview of attempts to build and strengthen partnerships between the health and education sectors to support further implementation of KidsMatter Primary.
© 2009 The Australian Psychological Society Limited. InPsych, 31(3):35. Reproduced with permission.
Peer-reviewed publications
As part of the pilot evaluation KidsMatter Primary has published a number of articles in peer-reviewed journals.
KidsMatter: A population health model to support student mental health and wellbeing in primary schools (2008) [PDF, 109KB]
This article provides an overview of KidsMatter Primary during the pilot evaluation of the initiative.
Early challenges in evaluating the KidsMatter national mental health promotion initiative in Australian primary schools (2008) [PDF, 352KB)
This article describes and analyses the challenges of planning and conducting the evaluation of KidsMatter Primary during the first year of the two-year pilot.
These articles have been reproduced with the permission of the International Journal of Mental Health Promotion.
Venturing into schools: Locating mental health initiatives in complex environments (2009) [PDF, 139KB]
This paper investigates the environments of schools participating in KidsMatter Primary in Australia. The focus of the paper is on the status of the schools’ work in one of the key focus areas for the initiative, namely students’ social and emotional capabilities.
This article has been reproduced with the permission of The International Journal of Emotional Education.
Implementation Quality of Whole-School Mental Health Promotion and Students’ Academic Performance (2011) [PDF, 443KB]
This paper argues for giving explicit attention to the quality of implementation of school-widemental health promotions and examines the impact of implementation quality on academic performance in KidsMatter Primary.
Dix, K. L., Slee, P. T., Lawson, M. J. and Keeves, J. P. (2011), Implementation Quality of Whole-School Mental Health Promotion and Students’ Academic Performance. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 16: no. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2011.00608.x
Conference papers
Different measures, different informants, same outcomes? Investigating multiple perspectives of primary school students’ mental health (2008) [PDF, 844KB]
This paper provides a national snapshot of the mental health status of Australian primary children, and comments on measures used to assess student mental health during the evaluation of KidsMatter Primary.
Evaluation report
View the report of the KidsMatter Primary pilot evaluation (including a report on findings for students with a disability).
