Opportunities in Middle Childhood
Multiple System Involvement During Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence in Northern Territory, Australia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6416169 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vincent Yaofeng He (0000-0002-7614-345X, Menzies School of Health Research Charles Darwin University Darwin Northern Territory Australia), Jenny Williams (0000-0002-9084-0446, Department of Economics University of Melbourne Melbourne Victoria Australia), Steven Roche (0000-0001-5648-0953, School of Allied Health Australian Catholic University Canberra Australian Capital Territory Australia), Tamika Williams (0000-0001-5648-5404, Menzies School of Health Research Charles Darwin University Darwin Northern Territory Australia), Steven Guthridge (0000-0003-1495-764X, Menzies School of Health Research Charles Darwin University Darwin Northern Territory Australia) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 838-851 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Australian Journal of Social Issues (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0157-6321 • E-ISSN: 1839-4655 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/ajs4.70031 |
| OpenAlex | W4410481252 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
Middle childhood offers a crucial window to identify and support children at risk of adverse outcomes in adolescence. This retrospective cohort study examined how data from multiple systems could identify children with the greatest need for support during middle childhood and early adolescence. Using individual level linked records from health, education, child protection and justice system for children who were enrolled in Northern Territory government schools in Year 1, we studied the relationships between system involvement/school engagement in middle childhood (ages 5–9) and subsequent system involvement/service usage during early adolescence (ages 10–13). Latent class analysis identified five distinct groups with varying patterns of system involvement. Notably, one group (12.1%) exhibited frequent contact with multiple systems, high school mobility between remote and urban regions, and high educational risk, contributing disproportionately to service usage. Early system involvement during middle childhood often preceded escalating service needs in adolescence, with early multi‐system contact emerging as a leading indicator of service use in later years. Our findings highlight the potential benefits of a ‘systems thinking’ approach, with coordinated cross‐agency responses and enhanced early interventions to better support vulnerable children, especially those engaged with multiple systems
Developmental psychology · Early childhood · Political science · Project commissioning · Publishing · Child Abuse and Trauma · Community Health and Development · Health Policy Implementation Science · History · Law · Psychology
An integrative development-in-sociocultural-context model for children’s engagement in learning.
Systems science and systems thinking for public health
The age of adolescence
Opportunities for prevention
Colonisation, racism and indigenous health
Early influences on developmental outcomes among children, at age 5, in Australia’s Northern Territory
Child Maltreatment in Remote Aboriginal Communities and the Northern Territory Emergency Response
Family socioeconomic status and home-based parental involvement
Disentangling system contact and services
Universal child health and early education service use from birth through Kindergarten and developmental vulnerability in the Preparatory Year (age 5 years) in Tasmania, Australia
Practical Challenges of Systems Thinking and Modeling in Public Health
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |