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Human Development and Community Wellbeing

The Human Development and Community Wellbeing (HDCW) Team focuses on improving outcomes for children, family, and the community.

The Human Development and Community Wellbeing (HDCW) Team exists to generate community-led, evidence-based solutions to human development and population health challenges, in order to improve the lives of children, families and their communities. The team does this by:

  • Listening to the community and co-designing solutions
  • Influencing policy and practise

  • Building team capacity and sustainability

  • Advocating for institutional changes

  • Employing high quality research methods and evidence

  • Collaborating and supporting each other to thrive

  • Setting new research agendas

About the Team

 The Human Development and Community Wellbeing Team, led by Professor Francis Mitrou is a multidisciplinary team that integrates expertise across a range of disciplines including population child development, economics, health promotion, public health, psychology, developmental psychopathology, neurodiversity, communications science, and mixed methods research.

With a wide-reaching network of partners and collaborators spanning public, non-government, and philanthropic sectors, the team also brings substantial collective experience across the research and tertiary education sectors.

Team and Funding Highlights 

Category 1 Funding

  • Professor Francis Mitrou, Dr Vincent Mancini, and Dr Vu Vuong were recently awarded $1.3m to lead the four-year ARC Discovery Project: “How Australian Fathers Shape the Trajectory of their Children’s Wellbeing” (DP250104711: 2025-2029).
  • Professor Francis Mitrou and Dr Ha Ngyuen were recently awarded $695k in competitive Category 1 funding to lead the MRFF Childhood Mental Health Research Grant: “Causal Impact of COVID-19 Lockdowns on the Mental Health of Australian Children” (MRF2036125: 2025-2027).
  • Professor Francis Mitrou holds a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Synergy Grant as Lead Investigator, with a 5-year, $5m project titled: “Improving Aboriginal health by understanding the influence of early life environments and contacts with health and social service systems over time and across generations.” (NHMRC Synergy Grant 2023-28. GNT2018970). The Synergy scheme represents the pinnacle of the NHMRC’s grants roster. The project involves a team of 20 Chief and Associate Investigators including six First Nations Investigators, with governance provided by an Aboriginal Steering Committee. The project is based around the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) linked to multiple WA Government administrative datasets.

Recent Funding

  • Early-to-Mid-Career Researcher Dr Thom Nevill won the $25k People’s Choice Illuminate Award 2025 to support their project titled: Improving support for children with Specific Learning Disabilities through early diagnosis.
  • The Western Australia Primary Health Alliance (WAPHA) awarded Professor Francis Mitrou, Emeritus Professor Stephen Zubrick, Dr Vu Vuong, Briana Guerrini, and Johanna Rewa a research tender to evaluate the free, digital mental health intervention – Moderated Online Social Therapy (MOST) for young people in Western Australia
  • Senior Research Fellow Dr Vincent Mancini, Professor Francis Mitrou, and Dr Lynne Millar in a team with five external investigators won a $388k healthway grant to develop, implement, and evaluate an implementation aimed at improving the wellbeing and involvement of Western Australian fathers in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to deliver better outcomes for children and families. 
  • Dr Renee Teal won a seeding grant to support her efforts in identifying the determinants of social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) among Aboriginal children aged 5 and under in Western Australia. 
  • Dr Vincent Mancini won a seeding grant to identify risk factors of problem sport gambling behaviour in Australian young people and identify key priorities to mitigate its normalisation and the subsequent mental health risks for young people.
  • Team Leader Professor Francis Mitrou was awarded a five-year Stan Perron Foundation People Fellowship 2024-2028 titled: Preventing deep and persistent disadvantage, reducing mental health problems in young people, and improving the health, education, community and justice outcomes for Aboriginal children and families in Western Australia. This prestigious fellowship provides vital salary support for Professor Mitrou allowing for his continued leadership of the valuable work of the HDCW Team.

ARC Life Course Centre

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Life Course Centre or LCC) is a prestigious research centre dedicated to breaking the cycle of deep and persistent disadvantage experienced by Australian children and families.

As one of four national university collaborators, The University of Western Australia (UWA) plays a key role in the Centre’s research efforts. Professor Francis Mitrou is the UWA Node Director. A number of staff from the HDCW team at The Kids are proud members of the Life Course Centre and are actively involved in a range of funded projects. These projects focus on evaluating and developing evidence-based solutions to improve life outcomes for vulnerable children and families, supporting them to thrive across the life course.

diagram detailing team members; 34 paid staff, 7 honoraries, 11 students, 3 research volunteers

Team leader

Team Head, Human Development and Community Wellbeing Team

Team members (30)

Kate Erceg
Kate Erceg

BA (Human Geography and Urban Planning)

Program Coordinator, ARC Life Course Centre

Sarah Johnson
Sarah Johnson

BA, PostGradDip; PhD

Senior Research Fellow

Senior Research Officer

Aboriginal Community Engagement Coordinator

Research Data Analyst

Senior Research Fellow

Liwen Guo
Liwen Guo

Econ PhD

Senior Research Officer

Vincent Mancini
Vincent Mancini

PhD (Clinical Psychology)

Nina Marshall
Nina Marshall

MPsych(Org); BPsychSc(Hons); BCom

Project Coordinator

Thom Nevill
Thom Nevill

BA(Hons), PhD

Research officer

Ezra Kneebone
Ezra Kneebone

BSc, GradDipRepSc, PhD

Mahdi Mazidi
Mahdi Mazidi

PhD (Psychology)

Senior Research Officer

Research Assistant and PhD Candidate

Lynne Millar
Lynne Millar

BA(Psych honours) PhD

Senior Research Fellow

Renee Teal
Renee Teal

BHlthSc(hons), PhD

Senior Research Officer

Patricia Lewis
Patricia Lewis

BA (Hons), MPH

Jade Bondonno
Jade Bondonno

BPsych (Hon)

Research Assistant

Research Assistant

Leanne Fried
Leanne Fried

BSc DipEd MSpEd EdD

Senior Research Fellow

Project Coordinator

Robyn Johnston
Robyn Johnston

BSc, Post Grad Dip, PhD

Senior Research Officer

Briana Guerrini
Briana Guerrini

BSc (Psych), MRes (Psych)

Joanne Readman
Joanne Readman

BSc, Dip Ed, Post Grad Dip (Health)

Project Coordinator

Human Development and Community Wellbeing projects

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Featured projects

WA Aboriginal Child Health Survey (WAACHS) Linked Data Study

This study is a partnership between researchers, the Aboriginal community and government to provide evidence for policy and practice addressing high priority health and wellbeing issues for Aboriginal children and families.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course

The The Kids Research Institute Australia team have an important role in the new Life Course Centre developing solutions for vulnerable children and their families to ensure their journey across the life course is the best it can be.

Reports and Findings

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Predicting Problem Gambling in Young Men: The Impact of Sports Gambling Frequency and Internalizing Symptoms

Young men aged 18-25 years are at disproportionately increased risk for gambling problems compared to their older or female counterparts. The unique mechanisms that precipitate these problems in this group remain unclear. Data from the largest longitudinal cohort study on Australian men's health (the Ten to Men Study) were used to identify the psychosocial, health-related, and gambling-related behavioral predictors of problem gambling severity in 265 young men aged 18-25 years. Hierarchical multiple ordinal logistic regression analyses found these predictors to explain a moderate proportion of variance in problem gambling severity. 

Norm Misperception and Witnessing Bullying: The Role of Individual and Contextual Characteristics

Previous studies have shown that when young people witness bullying, perceived social norms of their peer group affect their behavior. However, few studies have examined the specificity of norm misperception (i.e., overestimation of peer antisocial responses and the underestimation of prosocial responses relative to the objective group norm) on specific witness responses (joining in, bystanding or active defending). 

Resilience and mental health among care leavers: Role of social inclusion, self-determination, and independent living skills

Young people transitioning from out-of-home care (OHC) frequently experience poor mental health and resilience due to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). However, there is limited understanding of the factors that mediate and moderate these outcomes. This is the first study to integrate linked administrative and longitudinal data to examine the mediation and moderation effects of placement stability, independent living skills (ILS), social inclusion, and self-determination when examining the association between ACEs and care status on mental health and resilience.

Extreme weather events, home damage, and the eroding locus of control

The catastrophic consequences of natural disasters on social and economic systems are extensively documented, yet their influence on individuals' sense of control over their life outcomes remains unexplored. This study pioneers an investigation into the causal effects of natural disaster-related home damage on the locus of control. 

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