Benefits Beyond Play

In partnership with Playgroup WA, this sub-project is investigating the impact of playgroups on mental health and socio-emotional outcomes in parents and children within ORIGINS.

Playgroups have been commonplace in Australia for over 40 years, offering a safe and fun environment for children and their parents to learn and play.

Childhood playgroups have an array of benefits to children and their carers, with recent reports indicating playfulness, cognitive skills, social abilities and school readiness are among the positive effects of playgroup attendance on young children.

Playgroups can exist in many different forms, vary in funding, frequency of occurrence and there are an array of programs that can be labeled as playgroups.

Although playgroups have been active for many years, there is a lack of research evaluating the benefits of playgroups beyond play, with variation in definition meaning that evaluation of the benefits of playgroups becomes difficult.

Thus, this study is to explore if there are any differences in confidence in parenting (for parents/caregivers), behavioural and developmental outcomes (for children 3 years of age) and mental health (for both parents and children) who attend playgroups versus those who do not attend playgroups.

Researchers will aim to answer:

If participation in a community playgroup lead to improved outcomes for children at 3 years of age?
a). Is there a difference in mental health, behavioural and developmental outcomes between those who attended playgroup vs those who did not attend playgroup?
If participation in a community playgroup lead to improved outcomes for the parents/caregivers?
a). Is there a difference in mental health and confidence in parenting outcomes between those who attend playgroup vs those who did not attend playgroup?

Investigators

Dr Poonam Pannu, ORIGINS Research Officer at The Kids Research Institute Australia
Dr Zenobia Talati, ORIGINS Senior Research Fellow at The Kids Research Institute Australia
Dr David Zarb at Playgroup WA
Dr Sarah Whalan, ORIGINS Databank Manager at The Kids Research Institute Australia
Wesley Billingham at The Kids Research Institute Australia
Dr Suzanne Meldrum at Edith Cowan University
Dr Jamie Tan at Joondalup Health Campus

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DreamStart Screen ORIGINS Happy Parenting Program Nature Play & Grow Positive Family Foundations Benefits Beyond Play

About ORIGINS

Local Research. Global Impact.

ORIGINS is the largest study of its kind in Australia, following 10,000 women, their babies, partners, and siblings, from conception into early childhood through a series of biological samples, face-to-face appointments, and online questionnaires.

Its goal is to develop targeted, more effective prevention and intervention strategies that support all families to flourish throughout life.

The unique interventional long-term study is one of the most comprehensive studies of pregnant women and their families in Australia, utilising over 400,000 biological samples and 30 million data points to deliver innovative, accelerated real-world research outcomes that aim to improve the health and families of now and for generations to come.

The research platform is headed by Co-Directors Professor Desiree Silva and Dr Jackie Davis.

ORIGINS received core funding from the WA Child Research Fund, Joondalup Health Campus, the Paul Ramsay Foundation, the Commonwealth Government of Australia through the Channel 7 Telethon Trust, and the Stan Perron Charitable Foundation.