Community Child Health Group
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Group Lead
Professor Sharon Goldfeld+61 3 9345 6408
Research Overview
Under the campus partnership, our research is embedded in MCRI with strong links to RCH. Full research profile may be found here: Policy Equity and Translation and Centre for Community Child Health.
Around 1 in 5 children are arriving at Australian Primary schools developmentally vulnerable. This means that around 20% of Australia’s children have not had the experiences or environments they need for healthy development. While this statistic is concerning, we are optimistic that outcomes for children, families and communities can be improved.
Our research group undertakes, synthesises and translates research so that it can inform policy, service delivery, professional practice and parenting. We conduct discovery and applied research, undertake consultancies for governments and non-government agencies, and provide evidence-informed advice to governments and community agencies.
Current projects are focused on:
Changing Children's Chances (CCC)
- Changing children's chances through reducing early developmental inequities in Australian children.
- Developing an evidence-based framework for informing effective policy responses (policy interventions) that can potentially reduce child health and developmental inequalities.
Kids in Communities Study (KiCS)
- Understanding how different factors in our communities—physical environment, social environment, socio-economic factors, access to services, and governance—influence the way that children develop and specifically, what factors are amenable to change and improve child health outcomes. We developed evidence-based draft community-level Foundational Community Factors (FCFs) for early childhood development (ECD). These are factors that lay the foundations of a good community for young children. The FCFs have been published in a report (see ‘Publications’ section further down). The ‘how-to’ of collecting the FCFs are outlined in a draft community manual.
Classroom Promotion of Oral Language (CPOL)
- Determining whether a specifically designed teacher professional learning intervention focused on a whole-of-class approach to promoting oral language can lead to improved outcomes in oral language, literacy development and mental health for early years' primary school students.
Staff
- Professor Sharon Goldfeld, Group Leader
- Dr Meredith O'Connor, Senior Research Officer (Changing Children's Chances)
- Dr Karen Villanueva, Research Officer (Kids in Communities Study)
- Dr Amy Watts, Project Coordinator (Classroom Promotion of Oral Language)
Collaborators
Changing Children’s Chances brings together leading equity researchers with policy experts:
The University of Melbourne
- Professor Sharon Goldfeld, Department of Paediatrics
- Professor Katrina Williams, Department of Paediatrics
- Professor Gary Freed, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Flinders University
- Associate Professor Gerry Redmond, School of Social & Policy Studies
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Professor Frank Oberklaid, Centre for Community Child Health
- Dr Fiona Mensah, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit
Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and The University of New South Wales
- Dr Sue Woolfenden, Department of Community Child Health
University of Otago
- Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Department of Public Health
Australian Department of Education and Training
- Dr Jianfei Gong
Victorian Department of Education and Training
- Dr Jenny Proimos
Brotherhood of St. Laurence
- Dr Eric Dommers
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
- Dr Hannah Badland, Centre for Urban Research
Kids in Communities Study brings together investigators and partner organisations from around Australia and internationally:
Chief investigators:
- Prof Sharon Goldfeld (Lead Chief Investigator), University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, Royal Children’s Hospital, Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Prof Billie Giles-Corti, RMIT University, Melbourne
- Prof Robert Tanton, NATSEM, University of Canberra
- A/Prof Sally Brinkman, University of Western Australia Centre for Child
- Prof Ilan Katz, Social Policy Research Centre, University of New South Wales
- A/Prof Geoff Woolcock, University of Southern Queensland
Federal and state government partner organisations:
- Australian Government Department of Education and Training
- Australian Bureau of Statistics
- Victorian Department of Education and Training
- Australian Capital Territory Community Services Directorate
- Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
- South Australia Department for Education and Child Development
- New South Wales Department of Education and Communities
- Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment
- New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services
Non-government partner organisations:
- The Smith Family
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Wesley Mission Brisbane
- The Benevolent Society
- Uniting Care
Other collaborating organisations:
- University of British Columbia (Canada)
- Mount Saint Vincent University (Canada)
- University of Ohio (USA)
Classroom Promotion of Oral Language (CPOL) brings together a team of experienced investigators from health and education disciplines through a unique collaboration between the institutions listed below.
The University of Melbourne
- Associate Professor John Munro
- Associate Professor Patricia Eadie
- Professor Sharon Goldfeld
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
- Professor Frank Oberklaid
- Dr Katherine Lee
Deakin University
- Associate Professor Lisa Gold
La Trobe University
- Professor Pamela Snow
The Royal Children’s Hospital Education Institute
- Dr Tony Barnett
- Dr Liza Hopkins
Catholic Education Commission of Victoria
- Judy Connell
- Brenda Andersen-Dalheim
Victorian Government Department of Education and Training
- Phoebe Jakober
- Mark Fields
Funding
Changing Children's Chances
Changing Children’s Chances is funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Program (DP160101735, 2016-2018).
Kids in Communities Study (KiCS)
The KiCS project is funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP130100411), along with generous support from our partner funders: The Australian Government Department of Education and Training, the Australian Capital Territory Community Services Directorate, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, the South Australia Department for Education and Child Development, the Victorian Department of Education and Training, the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities, New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services, The Benevolent Society, Uniting Care, and the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment. The development of draft community-level foundational community factors (FCFs) was funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services.
Generous in-kind support for KiCS has been provided by:
The Australian Government Department of Education and Training, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Australian Capital Territory Community Services Directorate, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, the New South Wales Department of Education and Communities, Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service, the South Australia Department for Education and Child Development, The Smith Family, the Victorian Department of Education and Training, Wesley Mission Brisbane, The Benevolent Society, Uniting Care, Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment, University of British Columbia, Mount Saint Vincent University, University of Ohio, and Australian Government Department of Social Services.
Classroom Promotion of Oral Language (CPOL)
CPOL is funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant: 'Improving children's language, literacy and mental health: Evaluating the impact of the Classroom Promotion of Oral Language (CPOL) approach' (LP130100308) and The Ian Potter Foundation.
Research Publications
KiCS Publications:
Information sheet: About the KiCS Study can be found here.
Final report of the KiCS pilot study (2010) can be found here.
- Goldfeld, S., G. Woolcock, I. Katz, R. Tanton, S. Brinkman, E. O’Connor, T. Mathews and B. Giles-Corti (2015). "Neighbourhood Effects Influencing Early Childhood Development: Conceptual Model and Trial Measurement Methodologies from the Kids in Communities Study." Social Indicators Research 120(1): 197-212.
- Tanton, R., M. Dare, S. Brinkman, B.-G. Corti, I. Katz, G. Woolcock and S. Goldfeld (2015). "Identifying off-diagonal communities using the Australian Early Development Census results." Social Indicators Research: 1-16.
- Goldfeld, S., K. Villanueva, R. Tanton, I. Katz, S. Brinkman, G. Woolcock and B. Giles-Corti (2017). "Kids in Communities Study (KiCS) study protocol: a cross-sectional mixed-methods approach to measuring community-level factors influencing early child development in Australia." BMJ Open 7(3).
- Goldfeld, S. and K. Villanueva (2017). "The Kids in Communities Study: what is it about where you live that makes a difference to children's development?" Early Childhood Matters: Moving towards scale: advancing early childhood development (126): 100.
- KiCS final report and draft community manual
- From the ARC-funded project, the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) provided further funding to develop evidence-based draft community-level Foundational Community Factors (FCFs) for early childhood development (ECD). These are factors that lay the foundations of a good community for young children. The KiCS report has a list of evidence-based promising (draft) FCFs for ECD, based on findings from KiCS. The draft community manual outlines the ‘how-to’- of collecting the FCFs.
If you’re interested in learning more about the report or draft community manual: https://www.mcri.edu.au/kics
Or contact us at: kics.study@mcri.edu.au
CPOL Publications:
- Stark, H.L., Snow, P.C., Eadie, P., and Goldfeld, S. (2016). "Language and reading instruction in early years' classrooms: the knowledge and self-rated ability of Australian teachers". Annals of Dyslexia, 66 (1): 228-254.
- Goldfeld, S., Snow, P.C., Eadie, P., Munro, J., Gold, L., Le, H., Orsini, F., Shingles, B. Lee, K., Connell, J., and Watts, A. "Classroom Promotion of Oral Language (CPOL): Protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial of a school-based intervention to improve children's literacy outcomes at Grade 3, oral language and mental health". BMJ Open (accepted July 2017).