Francis Mitrou
Biographic Data
| ID | 5418501 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Francis Mitrou |
| GIVEN NAMES | Francis |
| FAMILY NAME | Mitrou |
| SIGNATURE | MITROU F |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Kids Research Institute Australia |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6639-2030 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 26 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Pathways of Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Peer Bullying in Children and Youth: A Scoping Review
Growing up in socioeconomic disadvantage increases risk of peer bullying at school. Both socioeconomic status and involvement in bullying are predictive of a range of adverse developmental outcomes. However, neither (a) the mechanisms whereby disadvantage increases bullying risk nor (b) the developmental outcomes for which bullying may mediate disadvantage are clear. This review scoped the literature on the relationships between socioeconomic dis…
Educational pathways and earnings trajectories of second-generation immigrants in Australia: New insights from linked census-administrative data
This study employs 2011 Census data linked to population-based administrative datasets to explore disparities in educational attainment and earnings trajectories among Australian-born children of diverse parental migration backgrounds from mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) second-generation immigrants exhibit superior academic outcomes, primarily driven by children of parents from select Asian countries. T…
The Luminos Project: Co-Designing a Short-Stay Suicide Support Model for Young People
Background: Suicide was the leading cause of death among young Australians aged 15-24 years old in 2023, with 392 lives lost. The continued high numbers of youth suicide demand urgent exploration of alternative approaches to suicide intervention in this population. The United Kingdom-based suicide service Maytree offers an innovative short-term stay for people experiencing suicidal thoughts. Grounded by the Maytree model-of-care, the aim of the c…
Extreme weather events, home damage, and the eroding locus of control
The causal impact of mental health on tobacco and alcohol consumption: An instrumental variables approach
The reciprocal relationship between psychiatric and substance use disorders is well-known, yet it remains largely unknown whether mental health morbidity causally leads to addictive behaviours. This paper utilises a fixed effects instrumental variables model, which is identified by time-varying sources of plausibly exogenous variations in mental health, and a nationally representative panel dataset from Australia to present robust evidence on the…
Daylight duration and time allocation of children and adolescents
This study explores the allocation of time, particularly to sleep, among children and adolescents in response to daily daylight variation. Utilising a dataset of over 50,000 time-use diaries from two Australian cohorts spanning 16 years and employing an individual fixed effects estimator, we uncover a substantial causal impact of daily daylight duration on sleep patterns. Our findings reveal that days with longer daylight hours are associated wit…
Investigating the Validity of the Australian Early Development Census
This article continues evaluation of the construct validity of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) through comparison with linked data from a sample of 2216 4-5 year old children collected as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). This builds on the construct validity assessment of Brinkman et al. (Early Educ Dev 18(3):427-451, 2007) based on a smaller sample of linked Australian Early Development Instrument (AvE…
Gender differences in time allocation contribute to differences in developmental outcomes in children and adolescents
Transfers of disadvantage across three generations using latent class associations within families
There is a large volume of research on the persistence of advantage and disadvantage across generations. Intergenerational studies typically address family resources as independent factors, which ignores how risks cluster together and accumulate over time. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, we conducted two latent class analyses to separately identify latent classes based on grandparent and parent characteristics for s…
Detect Schools Study Protocol: A Prospective Observational Cohort Surveillance Study Investigating the Impact of Covid-19 in Western Australian Schools
Introduction: Amidst the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is key to providing peace of mind for the community and informing policy-making decisions. While available data suggest that school-aged children are not significant spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the possibility of transmission in schools remains an ongoing concern, especially among an aging teaching workforce. Even in low-prevalence se…
Ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: The role of time investments
Feasibility of a Consumer Centred Tobacco Management intervention in Community Mental Health Services in Australia
The Contribution of Geogenic Particulate Matter to Lung Disease in Indigenous Children
Indigenous children have much higher rates of ear and lung disease than non-Indigenous children, which may be related to exposure to high levels of geogenic (earth-derived) particulate matter (PM). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between dust levels and health in Indigenous children in Western Australia (W.A.). Data were from a population-based sample of 1077 Indigenous children living in 66 remote communities of W.A. (>2,000…
Educational inequality across three generations in Australia
The transfer of advantage and disadvantage across multiple generations is receiving increasing attention in the international literature; however, transfers of resources across multiple generations in Australian families are less well understood. Using a longitudinal dataset of Australian children, we have the opportunity to not only investigate the transfer of educational resources across three generations in Australia, but also investigate the …
Associations between school absence and academic achievement: Do socioeconomics matter
This study examined the extent to which the association between increased student absence and lower achievement outcomes varied by student and school‐level socioeconomic characteristics. Analyses were based on the enrolment, absence and achievement records of 89,365 Year 5, 7 and 9 students attending government schools in Western Australian between 2008 and 2012. Multivariate multi‐level modelling methods were used to estimate numeracy, writing a…
Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: A census cohort study of social determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006
Australia, Canada, and New Zealand represent nations with some of the highest levels of human development in the world. Relative to their non-Indigenous populations, their Indigenous populations were almost as disadvantaged in 2006 as they were in 1981 in the employment and income domains, and more disadvantaged in the education domain. New approaches for closing gaps in social determinants of health are required if progress on achieving equity i…
Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections
Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australian…
Trends in sugar supply and consumption in Australia: Is there an Australian Paradox
The Australian Paradox assertion is based on incomplete data, as it excludes sugar contained in imported processed foods, which have increased markedly. A major Australian public health target is to improve the quality of the food supply, and actions have been set in terms of achieving broader environmental changes. However, evaluation of progress is hampered by lack of high quality data relating to supply and consumption. We recommend the regula…
Smoking, mental illness and socioeconomic disadvantage: Analysis of the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing
The association between mental illness and smoking is not explained by the association between mental illness and socioeconomic status. There are strong socioeconomic and psychosocial gradients in both current smoking and smoking cessation. Incorporating knowledge of the other adverse factors in smokers' lives may increase the penetration of tobacco control interventions in population groups that have historically benefitted less from these activ…
Food Sources of Saturated Fat and the Association With Mortality: A Meta-Analysis
We summarized the data related to foods high in saturated fat and risk of mortality. We searched Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and ProQuest for studies from January 1952 to May 2012. We identified 26 publications with individual dietary data and all-cause, total cancer, or cardiovascular mortality as endpoints. Pooled relative risk estimates demonstrated that high intakes of milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter were not associated with a signifi…
Socioeconomic disparities in the mental health of Indigenous children in Western Australia
Our results provide incremental evidence of a social gradient in the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Improving the social, economic and psychological conditions of families with Indigenous children has considerable potential to reduce the mental health inequalities within Indigenous populations and, in turn, to close the substantial racial gap in mental health. Interventions that target housing quality, home owner…
Sugar sweetened beverage consumption by Australian children: Implications for public health strategy
SSB intake by Australian children remains high and warrants continued public health attention. Evidence based and age-targeted interventions, which also recognise supermarkets as the primary source of SSB, are recommended to reduce SSB consumption among children. Additionally, education of parents and children regarding the health consequences of high consumption of both carbonated and non-carbonated SSBs is required
Non-specific psychological distress, smoking status and smoking cessation: United States National Health Interview Survey 2005
The strong association between K6 psychological distress scores and mental disorders of long duration suggests that the K6 measure is a useful proxy for ongoing mental health problems. As people with anxiety and depressive disorders make up a large proportion of adult smokers in the US, attention to the role of these disorders in smoking behaviours may be a useful area of further investigation for tobacco control
Antecedents of teenage pregnancy from a 14-year follow-up study using data linkage
Our findings suggest that interventions to reduce teenage pregnancy rates could be introduced during primary school years, including those that are focused on the prevention and management of aggressive and delinquent behaviour
Smoking and mental illness: Results from population surveys in Australia and the United States
Mental illness is associated with both higher rates of smoking and higher levels of smoking among smokers. Further, a significant proportion of smokers have mental illness. Strategies that address smoking in mental illness, and mental illness among smokers would seem to be important directions for tobacco control. As the majority of smokers with mental illness are not in contact with mental health services for their condition, strategies to addre…
Food Sources of Saturated Fat and the Association With Mortality: A Meta-Analysis
We summarized the data related to foods high in saturated fat and risk of mortality. We searched Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and ProQuest for studies from January 1952 to May 2012. We identified 26 publications with individual dietary data and all-cause, total cancer, or cardiovascular mortality as endpoints. Pooled relative risk estimates demonstrated that high intakes of milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter were not associated with a signifi…
Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections
Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australian…
Associations between school absence and academic achievement: Do socioeconomics matter
This study examined the extent to which the association between increased student absence and lower achievement outcomes varied by student and school‐level socioeconomic characteristics. Analyses were based on the enrolment, absence and achievement records of 89,365 Year 5, 7 and 9 students attending government schools in Western Australian between 2008 and 2012. Multivariate multi‐level modelling methods were used to estimate numeracy, writing a…
Ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: The role of time investments
Transfers of disadvantage across three generations using latent class associations within families
There is a large volume of research on the persistence of advantage and disadvantage across generations. Intergenerational studies typically address family resources as independent factors, which ignores how risks cluster together and accumulate over time. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, we conducted two latent class analyses to separately identify latent classes based on grandparent and parent characteristics for s…
Educational inequality across three generations in Australia
The transfer of advantage and disadvantage across multiple generations is receiving increasing attention in the international literature; however, transfers of resources across multiple generations in Australian families are less well understood. Using a longitudinal dataset of Australian children, we have the opportunity to not only investigate the transfer of educational resources across three generations in Australia, but also investigate the …
Indigenous well-being in four countries: An application of the UNDP'S Human Development Index to Indigenous Peoples in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States
BACKGROUND: Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand consistently place near the top of the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index (HDI) rankings, yet all have minority Indigenous populations with much poorer health and social conditions than non-Indigenous peoples. It is unclear just how the socioeconomic and health status of Indigenous peoples in these countries has changed in recent decades, and it remains …
Smoking and mental illness: Results from population surveys in Australia and the United States
Mental illness is associated with both higher rates of smoking and higher levels of smoking among smokers. Further, a significant proportion of smokers have mental illness. Strategies that address smoking in mental illness, and mental illness among smokers would seem to be important directions for tobacco control. As the majority of smokers with mental illness are not in contact with mental health services for their condition, strategies to addre…
Antecedents of teenage pregnancy from a 14-year follow-up study using data linkage
Our findings suggest that interventions to reduce teenage pregnancy rates could be introduced during primary school years, including those that are focused on the prevention and management of aggressive and delinquent behaviour
Sugar sweetened beverage consumption by Australian children: Implications for public health strategy
SSB intake by Australian children remains high and warrants continued public health attention. Evidence based and age-targeted interventions, which also recognise supermarkets as the primary source of SSB, are recommended to reduce SSB consumption among children. Additionally, education of parents and children regarding the health consequences of high consumption of both carbonated and non-carbonated SSBs is required
Non-specific psychological distress, smoking status and smoking cessation: United States National Health Interview Survey 2005
The strong association between K6 psychological distress scores and mental disorders of long duration suggests that the K6 measure is a useful proxy for ongoing mental health problems. As people with anxiety and depressive disorders make up a large proportion of adult smokers in the US, attention to the role of these disorders in smoking behaviours may be a useful area of further investigation for tobacco control
Socioeconomic disparities in the mental health of Indigenous children in Western Australia
Our results provide incremental evidence of a social gradient in the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Improving the social, economic and psychological conditions of families with Indigenous children has considerable potential to reduce the mental health inequalities within Indigenous populations and, in turn, to close the substantial racial gap in mental health. Interventions that target housing quality, home owner…
Trends in sugar supply and consumption in Australia: Is there an Australian Paradox
The Australian Paradox assertion is based on incomplete data, as it excludes sugar contained in imported processed foods, which have increased markedly. A major Australian public health target is to improve the quality of the food supply, and actions have been set in terms of achieving broader environmental changes. However, evaluation of progress is hampered by lack of high quality data relating to supply and consumption. We recommend the regula…
Smoking, mental illness and socioeconomic disadvantage: Analysis of the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing
The association between mental illness and smoking is not explained by the association between mental illness and socioeconomic status. There are strong socioeconomic and psychosocial gradients in both current smoking and smoking cessation. Incorporating knowledge of the other adverse factors in smokers' lives may increase the penetration of tobacco control interventions in population groups that have historically benefitted less from these activ…
Food Sources of Saturated Fat and the Association With Mortality: A Meta-Analysis
We summarized the data related to foods high in saturated fat and risk of mortality. We searched Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and ProQuest for studies from January 1952 to May 2012. We identified 26 publications with individual dietary data and all-cause, total cancer, or cardiovascular mortality as endpoints. Pooled relative risk estimates demonstrated that high intakes of milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter were not associated with a signifi…
Gaps in Indigenous disadvantage not closing: A census cohort study of social determinants of health in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand from 1981–2006
Australia, Canada, and New Zealand represent nations with some of the highest levels of human development in the world. Relative to their non-Indigenous populations, their Indigenous populations were almost as disadvantaged in 2006 as they were in 1981 in the employment and income domains, and more disadvantaged in the education domain. New approaches for closing gaps in social determinants of health are required if progress on achieving equity i…
Evidence for the use of an algorithm in resolving inconsistent and missing Indigenous status in administrative data collections
Measures of the gap in living standards, life expectancy, education, health and employment between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australians are primarily derived from administrative data sources. However, Indigenous identification in these data sources is affected by administrative practices, missing data, inconsistency, and error. As these factors have changed over time, assessing whether the gap between Indigenous and non‐Indigenous Australian…
Associations between school absence and academic achievement: Do socioeconomics matter
This study examined the extent to which the association between increased student absence and lower achievement outcomes varied by student and school‐level socioeconomic characteristics. Analyses were based on the enrolment, absence and achievement records of 89,365 Year 5, 7 and 9 students attending government schools in Western Australian between 2008 and 2012. Multivariate multi‐level modelling methods were used to estimate numeracy, writing a…
Educational inequality across three generations in Australia
The transfer of advantage and disadvantage across multiple generations is receiving increasing attention in the international literature; however, transfers of resources across multiple generations in Australian families are less well understood. Using a longitudinal dataset of Australian children, we have the opportunity to not only investigate the transfer of educational resources across three generations in Australia, but also investigate the …
The Contribution of Geogenic Particulate Matter to Lung Disease in Indigenous Children
Indigenous children have much higher rates of ear and lung disease than non-Indigenous children, which may be related to exposure to high levels of geogenic (earth-derived) particulate matter (PM). The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between dust levels and health in Indigenous children in Western Australia (W.A.). Data were from a population-based sample of 1077 Indigenous children living in 66 remote communities of W.A. (>2,000…
Ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: The role of time investments
Feasibility of a Consumer Centred Tobacco Management intervention in Community Mental Health Services in Australia
Detect Schools Study Protocol: A Prospective Observational Cohort Surveillance Study Investigating the Impact of Covid-19 in Western Australian Schools
Introduction: Amidst the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the transmission dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is key to providing peace of mind for the community and informing policy-making decisions. While available data suggest that school-aged children are not significant spreaders of SARS-CoV-2, the possibility of transmission in schools remains an ongoing concern, especially among an aging teaching workforce. Even in low-prevalence se…
Gender differences in time allocation contribute to differences in developmental outcomes in children and adolescents
Transfers of disadvantage across three generations using latent class associations within families
There is a large volume of research on the persistence of advantage and disadvantage across generations. Intergenerational studies typically address family resources as independent factors, which ignores how risks cluster together and accumulate over time. Using data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, we conducted two latent class analyses to separately identify latent classes based on grandparent and parent characteristics for s…
Investigating the Validity of the Australian Early Development Census
This article continues evaluation of the construct validity of the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) through comparison with linked data from a sample of 2216 4-5 year old children collected as part of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). This builds on the construct validity assessment of Brinkman et al. (Early Educ Dev 18(3):427-451, 2007) based on a smaller sample of linked Australian Early Development Instrument (AvE…
The causal impact of mental health on tobacco and alcohol consumption: An instrumental variables approach
The reciprocal relationship between psychiatric and substance use disorders is well-known, yet it remains largely unknown whether mental health morbidity causally leads to addictive behaviours. This paper utilises a fixed effects instrumental variables model, which is identified by time-varying sources of plausibly exogenous variations in mental health, and a nationally representative panel dataset from Australia to present robust evidence on the…
Daylight duration and time allocation of children and adolescents
This study explores the allocation of time, particularly to sleep, among children and adolescents in response to daily daylight variation. Utilising a dataset of over 50,000 time-use diaries from two Australian cohorts spanning 16 years and employing an individual fixed effects estimator, we uncover a substantial causal impact of daily daylight duration on sleep patterns. Our findings reveal that days with longer daylight hours are associated wit…
Pathways of Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Peer Bullying in Children and Youth: A Scoping Review
Growing up in socioeconomic disadvantage increases risk of peer bullying at school. Both socioeconomic status and involvement in bullying are predictive of a range of adverse developmental outcomes. However, neither (a) the mechanisms whereby disadvantage increases bullying risk nor (b) the developmental outcomes for which bullying may mediate disadvantage are clear. This review scoped the literature on the relationships between socioeconomic dis…
Educational pathways and earnings trajectories of second-generation immigrants in Australia: New insights from linked census-administrative data
This study employs 2011 Census data linked to population-based administrative datasets to explore disparities in educational attainment and earnings trajectories among Australian-born children of diverse parental migration backgrounds from mid-adolescence to early adulthood. Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) second-generation immigrants exhibit superior academic outcomes, primarily driven by children of parents from select Asian countries. T…
The Luminos Project: Co-Designing a Short-Stay Suicide Support Model for Young People
Background: Suicide was the leading cause of death among young Australians aged 15-24 years old in 2023, with 392 lives lost. The continued high numbers of youth suicide demand urgent exploration of alternative approaches to suicide intervention in this population. The United Kingdom-based suicide service Maytree offers an innovative short-term stay for people experiencing suicidal thoughts. Grounded by the Maytree model-of-care, the aim of the c…
Medicine (15 works) · Environmental health (13 works) · Population (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Public health (8 works) · Demography (7 works) · Psychiatry (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Biostatistics (6 works)