Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts

This article describes challenges met implementing an early intervention programme for Aboriginal parents and their children in the NT (Northern Territory) of Australia in the context of efforts to remediate Aboriginal disadvantage. The intervention is an adaptation of an 8- to 10-week, manualised p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Robinson, G., Tyler, W., Jones, Y., Silburn, S., Zubrick, Stephen
Format: Journal Article
Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40364
_version_ 1848755850956505088
author Robinson, G.
Tyler, W.
Jones, Y.
Silburn, S.
Zubrick, Stephen
author_facet Robinson, G.
Tyler, W.
Jones, Y.
Silburn, S.
Zubrick, Stephen
author_sort Robinson, G.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This article describes challenges met implementing an early intervention programme for Aboriginal parents and their children in the NT (Northern Territory) of Australia in the context of efforts to remediate Aboriginal disadvantage. The intervention is an adaptation of an 8- to 10-week, manualised parenting programme designed for four- to six-year-old children with behavioural difficulties. It was implemented for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in urban Darwin and for Aboriginal children in three communities of the Tiwi Islands, near Darwin. Measured outcomes of the programme were positive overall with different outcomes by gender and Indigenous status. There were marked differences in retention of families from different socio-cultural backgrounds in the programme, with a significant loss of participants from referral through commencement to six-month follow-up. This drop-out was most marked for urban Aboriginal participants, despite highly flexible strategies of engagement and cultural adaptation of the approach pursued in each setting. The research provides lessons for the contextualisation of preventive interventions in diverse community settings and shows that systematic attention to cultural ‘fit’ of the intervention logic and cultural competence in engagement of disadvantaged families with multiple problems are fundamental to sustainability.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T09:02:52Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-40364
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T09:02:52Z
publishDate 2012
publisher Wiley-Blackwell
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-403642017-09-13T13:37:32Z Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts Robinson, G. Tyler, W. Jones, Y. Silburn, S. Zubrick, Stephen early prevention family behaviour problems policy and practice parenting This article describes challenges met implementing an early intervention programme for Aboriginal parents and their children in the NT (Northern Territory) of Australia in the context of efforts to remediate Aboriginal disadvantage. The intervention is an adaptation of an 8- to 10-week, manualised parenting programme designed for four- to six-year-old children with behavioural difficulties. It was implemented for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in urban Darwin and for Aboriginal children in three communities of the Tiwi Islands, near Darwin. Measured outcomes of the programme were positive overall with different outcomes by gender and Indigenous status. There were marked differences in retention of families from different socio-cultural backgrounds in the programme, with a significant loss of participants from referral through commencement to six-month follow-up. This drop-out was most marked for urban Aboriginal participants, despite highly flexible strategies of engagement and cultural adaptation of the approach pursued in each setting. The research provides lessons for the contextualisation of preventive interventions in diverse community settings and shows that systematic attention to cultural ‘fit’ of the intervention logic and cultural competence in engagement of disadvantaged families with multiple problems are fundamental to sustainability. 2012 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40364 10.1111/j.1099-0860.2010.00353.x Wiley-Blackwell restricted
spellingShingle early prevention
family
behaviour problems
policy and practice
parenting
Robinson, G.
Tyler, W.
Jones, Y.
Silburn, S.
Zubrick, Stephen
Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts
title Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts
title_full Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts
title_fullStr Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts
title_full_unstemmed Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts
title_short Context, Diversity and Engagement: Early Intervention with Australian Aboriginal Families in Urban and Remote Contexts
title_sort context, diversity and engagement: early intervention with australian aboriginal families in urban and remote contexts
topic early prevention
family
behaviour problems
policy and practice
parenting
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/40364