Harnessing shared reading of picture books to promote health and wellbeing in children

About This Project 

Are you interested in understanding how we can harness early childhood education to improve the health and wellbeing of the next generation?

This Masters project will explore how children’s picture books can be used to promote health and wellbeing literacy and behaviours in young children. Specifically, it will explore characteristics of health focused interventions that utilise picture books to deliver health related messages to children. These messages might include the importance of physical activity, sleep, healthy eating, dental hygiene and more. This project will also explore ‘shared reading’ (ie, parents/caregivers/educators reading a picture book to a child) to understand how these messages might be further promoted to young children in this context.

This project will underpin the development of picture book reading interventions that target health promoting behaviours in young children.

The aim of this Masters project is to understand how shared reading of picture books can be used to promote health and wellbeing in young children. Specific project objectives include: (1) conduct a scoping review exploring the characteristics of health-focused interventions that utilise shared picture book reading in young children, and (2) to conduct an observational study investigating caregiver-child interactions during shared picture book reading of books that include health promoting behaviours. Young children are regularly exposed to children’s picture books both at home and in educational settings. Shared reading of picture books (i.e., caregivers/educators reading to children) provides opportunities for children to develop language, communication, social and emotional skills, as well as exposure to a broad range of educational content and real-world learnings. Shared reading is a particularly powerful learning context as it provides opportunities for discussion and interactions between the child and caregiver/educator. There is currently limited research exploring how shared reading of picture books can be harnessed to promote health and wellbeing behaviours in young children. The findings of this project will help to inform the development of new interventions that aim to use shared reading to enhance children’s health and wellbeing behaviours.

The anticipated outcomes of this project include (1) understanding the characteristics of shared reading interventions that target health and wellbeing literacy and behaviours in young children and (2) understanding the interactions that take place during shared reading that may promote health and wellbeing in young children. The outcomes of this project will directly inform the development of interventions that harness shared reading to enhance health and wellbeing literacy and behaviours in young children.

What you’ll do

You will work within a multidisciplinary team (physiotherapy, early childhood education), with supervisory expertise across both child health and education, and will work closely with children and families from diverse backgrounds. This may involve attending and engaging with the community at child-care centres, libraries, and other community events. You will learn skills in conducting a scoping review, leading an ethics application, participant recruitment, data collection, and qualitative data analysis. There may be opportunities to travel and present your work at local/national/international conferences.

You will have the opportunity to be a valued member of the Body in Mind Research Group (within IIMPACT in Health); attending group meetings, seminars, and with opportunities to have mentorship from other HDR and post-doctoral fellows in the group. You will also have opportunities to be involved in related research from within the group, if appropriate. The supervisors of this project have several international and national collaborators across fields, and you will be given opportunities to connect and work with world experts as a part of their project.

Where you’ll be based

You will be affiliated with both IIMPACT in Health and the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) and will therefore have access to and supports from across the two research centres and academic units. You will be based within the Body in Mind Research Group at the University of South Australia’s City East campus where you will be situated amongst other Masters and PhD students and early-career researchers in the lab. The lab hosts a highly supportive work environment that fosters open communication, collaboration, and work-life balance. We hold weekly social lunches and have access to student mentorship. Financial Support  

This project is funded for reasonable research expenses. A fee offset for the standard term of the program is available to Australian and New Zealand citizens, and permanent residents of Australia, including permanent humanitarian visa holders.  Additionally, any Australian Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicant who holds an offer of admission without a living allowance will be eligible for the Aboriginal Enterprise Research Scholarship. This scholarship is to the value of $50,291 per annum (2024 rates). Any Aboriginal Enterprise Research Scholarship recipient will also receive a fee waiver. Where an international applicant holds an external scholarship or sponsorship a full or partial fee waiver may apply in some circumstances for exceptional applicants.  Other international applicants will be required to pay full tuition fees of approximately AUD$42,000 per annum (2024 rates).  

Eligibility and Selection 

This project is open to application from both domestic and international applicants.

Applicants must meet the eligibility criteria for entrance into a Masters by Research.

All applications that meet the eligibility and selection criteria will be considered for this project. A merit selection process will be used to determine the successful candidate. 

The successful applicant is expected to study full-time or part-time (in exceptional circumstances, and to be based at our City East Campus in the heart of Adelaide. Note that international students on a student visa will need to study full-time.

Essential Dates 

Applicants are expected to start in a timely fashion upon receipt of an offer.  Extended deferral periods are not available. Applications close on Sunday, 16 February, 2025.