Manager, Friendly Schools
BA (Education)
Erin is the Manager of the Friendly Schools Project for the Health Promotion and Education Research Team at Telethon Kids Institute. Erin’s most significant work in child and youth research relates to school and community-based interventions to enhance social and emotional wellbeing and reduce bullying behaviour.She is a co-author of the Friendly Schools Program, an internationally recognised research project to reduce bullying in Primary and Secondary schools. This research has spanned over 20 years and included 15 major research studies involving 35,000 Australian students from pre-primary to year 12 plus their Teachers, Parents and School Administrators.
In addition, Erin has also contributed to research in the areas of social and emotional wellbeing in schools, whole-school implementation processes, online social and emotional learning and cyber bullying, student self-esteem and resilience, secondary school transition, school and family partnerships and fathers’ impact on child wellbeing.
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Publications
September 2021
Strengthening student social and emotional wellbeing and preventing bullying behaviours: Insights from 20 years of Friendly Schools research in Australian schools.
Strong evidence supports our current understandings of student bullying behaviours and ways schools can prevent and respond effectively to bullying behaviour. In the late 1990’s, however, little was understood about the most effective ways to reduce bullying in Australian schools. In response to schools’ need for evidence-informed action, a pipeline of research called Friendly Schools was initiated in 1999 which for the past twenty years, has provided robust whole-school evidence-based knowledge and skills to support policy makers, school staff and other practitioners working in schools and families across Australia.
Published research Bullying Human Development and Community Wellbeing School Attendance Social and Emotional Wellbeing of Aboriginal Young People Youth mental health