Adolescence is a critical developmental period where health determines developmental trajectories and outcomes during adolescence itself, into adulthood and into the next generation. More than half of the global population of adolescents lives in the Asia Pacific region. Yet globally, regionally and indeed locally in Australia, there are major unmet health needs, inadequate investments in responsive systems, and insufficient research and translation capacity in adolescent health.
Advancing Adolescent Health in the Asia Pacific: A virtual community to share knowledge and support collaboration is an opportunity to come together to share knowledge, showcase new findings and/or research methods with the overarching objective of helping to build capacity in the Asia Pacific region, including Australia, to improve adolescent health and wellbeing.
This seminar series aims to provide researchers, policy makers, practitioners, implementers, young advocates – indeed anyone interested in the health and wellbeing of adolescents – opportunities to enhance their understanding of adolescent health and wellbeing, with a focus on research.
This monthly series is supported by the Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) for Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health. Funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, the CRE is focused on defining the health needs of adolescents to deliver research that drives investment in neglected areas of adolescent health including mental health, non-communicable disease risk, injury and violence and substance use. Led by a team at the Centre for Adolescent Health, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute it brings together leading Australian research groups including the University of Melbourne, Burnet Institute, University of New South Wales, University of South Australia, University of Queensland, and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. These researchers have multiple relationships with academics, policy makers, clinicians and advocates across the Asia Pacific region. Learn more about the CRE here.
Register to join the series here
Past session recordings
The Age of Adolescence
Synopsis: In introducing this monthly virtual Seminar Series, Professor Susan Sawyer provided the background of why adolescent health matters, described the rationale for an expanded definition of adolescence, provided the background to our Centre of Research Excellence and in doing so, provided the context for why adolescent health matters in our region. The intention was that this session would set the scene for future seminars.
Date: 1 February 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
Adolescent mental health in Indonesia and Vietnam
Synopsis: The National Adolescent Mental Health Surveys (NAMHS) were nationally representative household surveys of mental disorders among adolescents aged 10-17 years in Kenya, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Conducted in 2021, over 5000 pairs of adolescents and their primary caregiver were interviewed in each country, with measures including diagnostic mental disorder, risk and protective factors, service use, and even COVID-19. This session focused on the why, how, and what of NAMHS i.e., why we did it, how we did it, and what we found.
Speaker: Associate Professor Holly Erskine, University of Queensland.
Date: 7 March 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event Recording:
Driving responsive actions for adolescent health in our region: data as an essential foundation
Synopsis: Adolescent health needs vary substantially across our region, but also within countries by age, gender, ethnicity, remoteness and other factors. For health actions to be responsive to need, we therefore need good quality data that defines these needs. In this presentation we highlighted efforts globally, regionally and nationally using population data, and presented a case study of understanding the contemporary drivers of adolescent pregnancy in our region.
Speakers: Professor Peter Azzopardi, Dr Marie Habito and Luo Li
Date: 4 April 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
The Forgotten Girls – pregnant adolescents in the Asia Pacific
Synopsis: This session spoke about the state of evidence for adolescent maternal health care in the Asia Pacific region, and the reasons why pregnant girls have been excluded from the research and policy space. The session highlighted how easy it is for pregnant and parenting adolescents to be framed as adults, and thus lose support for their ongoing development. Both presenters spoke about participatory learning and action women’s groups which aim to mobilise the community for maternal and child health. This session explored how pregnant adolescents engage with such groups.
Speakers: Dr Farnaz Sabet and Ms Suchitra Rath
Date: 2 May 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
Adolescent injury burden and prevention – global to local perspectives
Synopsis: Injury is a significant, yet preventable, cause of death and morbidity among adolescents globally. This session examined the work of the injury stream of the CRE to quantify the global burden of injury and interpersonal violence experienced by adolescents, uncover the evidence to support investment in effective interventions, as well as the gaps. The seminar will closed with a deep dive into road injury, the leading cause of injury for adolescents, reviewing recent research findings and first-hand experiences of young people.
Speakers: Professor Rebecca Ivers, Dr Patricia Cullen, Dr Amy Peden, and Ms Amy Wang
Date: 6 June 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
Building capacity for global adolescent health
Synopsis: This workshop style session discussed the need for high-quality, youth-informed research to help drive investment in global adolescent health and highlight some of the CRE’s goals for building capacity for youth involvement in research. Attendees were invited to share the challenges they face in undertaking adolescent informed health research in their region or professional sector and what is needed to build capacity to overcome these challenges. This session also showcased some current education initiatives happening in the region aimed at building workforce capacity for adolescent health.
Speakers: Dr Jennifer Dam, Dr Emma A. Llanto & Dr Fransisca H Agung
Date: 4 July 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
From Surviving to Thriving: The Global Movement Starts Shifting
Synopsis: This seminar discussed the global movement from surviving to thriving, emphasizing the need to measure adolescent wellbeing and enable the understanding of current gaps and progress made.
Speakers: Luo Li (PhD candidate, CREYATE) and Professor Peter Azzopardi
Date: 1 August 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
How to CREYATE Partnerships in Research with Young People
Synopsis: In this session, the Centre of Research Excellence for Driving Global Investment in Adolescent Health (CRE) Youth Advocates Team (CREYATE) went through the essential phases of engaging young people in research.
Speakers: Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis, Diandra Priambodo, Ivy Craw, Jasmine Elliot, Luo Li, Molly O’Sullivan
Date: 7 November 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording:
Anxiety and depression across adolescence: insights from a longitudinal study of contemporary Australian youth
Synopsis: This seminar presented findings from the Child to Adult Transition Study (CATS), a Melbourne-based longitudinal cohort study. CATS has measured depressive and anxiety symptoms annually over eight waves, following participants from age 10 to 18 years. The presentation delved into the prevalence of clinically significant symptoms, their recurrence across adolescence, and the likelihood of recovery, offering novel insights into the persistence and variability of CMDs in young people.
Speakers: Dr Ellie Robson, Professor Susan Sawyer, Professor Nicola Reavley
Date: 5 December 2024
Time: 1:00 to 2:00 pm AEDT
Event recording: