Resilient Youth collaboration with the University of South Australia

Resilient Youth and the Behaviour, Body, Brain Research Centre (BBB) at the University of South Australia have teamed up for a ground-breaking project to develop an evidence-based approach to the promotion of bio-psycho-social health in Australian schools.

Findings from our large-scale Resilient Youth Resilience Survey data set are key to the collaboration .

A recent Behaviour, Body, Brain Research Centre @ UniSA (BBB) publication presents the following Resilience Survey data:

Data across >180,000 children, eight-18 years reveals that 25% of year three students text-message at night during the hours of 10pm-6am. This is increased to 83% by year 12 <graphic from BBB brochure>

Smartphones in the bedroom rob sleep time, disrupt circadian rhythms, and facilitate communication during the circadian low, impairing communication. These factors lead to disturbed mental health.

The RY data shows that night time texting frequency correlates with receiving hurtful texts, responding in anger, losing sleep over worry, and depressive symptoms.

Interestingly however, night time messaging may foster social connection which is essential for resilience from a psychological perspective.

More about BBB:

Behaviour, Body, Brain Research Centre researchers bring their integrated expertise in sleep and circadian rhythms. nutritional physiology, activity, metabolism, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, biostatistics, and workplace injury and error prevention to work together on projects promoting healthy functioning across the lifespan. This synergy allows them to take a holistic bio-behavioural approach to health in order to address the multifaceted challenges of our end-users.

The BBB Centre is co-lead by Associate Professor Siobhan Banks and Associate Professor Jill Dorrian.

BBB Leadership team:

Professor Kurt Lushington

Dr Hannah Keage

Dr Tobias Loetscher

Dr Mark Kohler

Dr Amanda Hutchinson

Dr Stephanie Centofanti

Associate Professor Alison Coates Dr Ashleigh Smith

The team at Resilient Youth led by Dr. Andrew Wicking look forward to a continuing working relationship with the University of South Australia and the Behaviour, Body, Brain Research Centre - coming together to help the youth of Australia and beyond thrive in communities and the world.