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Research

Healthy Behaviours and Environments Program

Listed are all The Kids Research Institute Australia research teams involved in our Healthy Behaviours and Environments Research Program. This program sits under the Brain and Behaviour research theme.

Research

Reliability of Fitness Assessments in Children With Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties

Examine the reliability of field-based fitness assessments in school-aged children with emotional or behavioral difficulties (EBD). Understanding the impact of fitness on physical activity participation for children with EBD is limited by our ability to reliably measure it.

Research

Assessing alexithymia across negative and positive emotions: Psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire

The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ) is a 24-item self-report measure of alexithymia. Originally developed in English, it was designed to try to enable more comprehensive (i.e., facet-level and valence-specific) alexithymia assessments. This study aimed to introduce and validate a Polish version of the PAQ. Our sample were 1,008 people (69.44% females, 30.06% males and 0.50% non-binary) aged 18-78 (M = 29.69, SD = 14.15) from the general community.

Research

MAN v FAT Soccer: Feasibility Study and Preliminary Efficacy of a Sport-Based Weight-Loss Intervention for Overweight and Obese Men in Australia

MAN v FAT Soccer is a sport-based weight-loss program for overweight and obese men that originated in the United Kingdom (i.e., as MAN v FAT Football) and appears to successfully engage men with weight loss.

Research

Strengthening Peer Mentoring Relationships for New Mothers: A Qualitative Analysis

The transition to motherhood can be challenging, especially for first-time mothers, and can accompany maternal distress. Social support—such as that offered by peers—can be important in assisting mothers to manage such distress.

Research

Loneliness Versus Distress: A Comparison of Emotion Regulation Profiles

Loneliness, a negative emotion stemming from the perception of unmet social needs, is a major public health concern. Current interventions often target social domains but produce small effects and are not as effective as established emotion regulation (ER)-based interventions for general psychological distress (i.e., depression/anxiety).

Research

Motives and Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions Predict Progress and Management of Goals in Parents

Parents must rapidly adapt goals from various aspects of their lives to accommodate the demands of the early stages of parenthood. According to the self-concordance model, having autonomous goal motives (based on enjoyment or personal goal value) should foster effective self-regulation (e.g., coping strategies), better goal management, and increase the likelihood of goal attainment, compared to controlled motives (goals driven by demands/pressures).

Research

‘It’s been a lifelong thing for me’: parents’ experiences of facilitating a healthy lifestyle for their children with severe obesity

For parents and guardians, assisting children/adolescents with severe obesity to lose weight is often a key objective but a complex and difficult challenge. Our aim in this study was to explore parents' (and guardians') perspectives on the challenges they have faced in assisting their children/adolescents with severe obesity to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Research

Goal Motives, Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions, and the Self-Regulation of Saving Goals: A Longitudinal Investigation

We investigated howautonomous and controlled motives for saving money contribute longitudinally to selfregulatory coping, goal progress, and psychological need satisfaction/frustration. We also investigated whether mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) facilitates saving through interactions with controlled goal motives.