2012 Scientific Report - Queensland Children's Medical Research ...

Bullying in Childhood and Adolescence: Sophie Moore, Rosana Norman, James Scott
The researchers examined demographic, family and parental factors as well as childhood
characteristics from age 2 that are associated with self-reported bullying in adolescence in
the Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (RAINE) study. Bullying was associated with family
structure, maternal mental health problems and low family income but no sex differences
were observed both in terms of risk factors for being bullied and prevalence of bullying in
adolescence. This study is one of the first to show that children with emotional and
behavioural problems as early as 2 and 5 years of age, well before bullying occurs, can be
identified as being at an increased risk of bullying in later life. The researchers are currently
working with the Raine cohort data to investigate associations between bullying (victim,
bully and bully-victim) at age 14 years and mental health outcomes at age 17 years.
Furthermore they are conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of bullying
outcomes, aiming to summarise the evidence for associations between bullying and a broad
range of outcomes related to education, employment, mental health, physical health, and
violence and criminal behaviour. The next part of their research will focus on identifying
interventions for reducing bullying in Australian schools.
Consequences of exposure to e-waste: Kristen Grant, Fiona Goldizen, Rosana Norman,
Peter Sly
The researchers are undertaking a systematic literature review on the health impacts of e-
waste exposure. The review has examined research relating to the physical health
outcomes, mental health outcomes, educational outcomes and alterations in cellular levels
and function associated with exposure to e-waste. To our knowledge this is the first
systematic review examining the direct health impacts of e-waste exposure and will provide
valuable information on what is currently a very small body of research. The review will
serve as a component of a larger World Health Organisation project on the impacts of e-
waste exposure on children’s health and form part of the background documents for an
international expert meeting, to be attended by toxicologists, environmental chemists,
epidemiologists, paediatricians, occupational health specialists, risk assessors and policy
experts. This international project aims to assess the overall position of research and policy
by identifying exposure scenarios, identifying individual chemical components and mixtures
commonly found in e-waste, investigating proven and potential health effects and assessing
opportunities for intervention.
PhD Project of Amy Heffernan:
Supervisory team: Professors Mueller and Sly, Dr Leisa-Maree Toms
This project aims to assess the exposure of Australian infants to organic pollutants and the
relationship to body burden. Low-volume analytical methods have been developed for the
analysis of a range of environmental phenols by LCMS/MS. Urine samples have been
collected, pooled and analysed for selected age, sex and socioeconomic strata from the
Australian population. Future work will assess inter- and intra-individual variability, and
expand the suite of analytes.
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