Senior Research Fellow
BSc (Hons) BEd MA PhD
Dr Runions (PhD, Human Development & Education, UToronto) studies children’s social and emotional wellbeing, the things that happen in children’s social lives that impact on wellbeing like bullying and how schools can work better to improve children’s lives, for example by prevention efforts focusing on social-emotional learning. He has been project director on two large school trials of the Friendly School program, and is internationally recognised for his work on motives for bullying and moral processing in aggression.
He has led research examining how the online medium affects cyberbullying, on the school social experiences of children with chronic health conditions, and developing methods to improve school staff mental health literacy. He has published over 50 peer reviewed articles including a seminal meta-analysis of bullying and cyberbullying prevalence. He is also a research coordinator with WA Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services and has led work on biopsychosocial processes, borderline personality disorder and deliberate self-harm.
His research with Telethon Kids Institute and with the Australian Life Course Centre aims to understand how schools and families can work together to better help students from disadvantaged backgrounds and neurodiverse children and adolescents to improve outcomes overall and to reduce inequities in developmental and occupational life outcomes.
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Projects
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Publications
June 2021
Bullying and psychosocial adjustment among children with and without asthma
Children with asthma face serious mental health risk, but the pathways remain unclear. This study aimed to examine bullying victimisation and perpetration in children with asthma and a comparison sample without a chronic health condition, and the role of bullying in moderating psychosocial adjustment outcomes for those with asthma. A sample of children with and without asthma, and their parents, were recruited from hospital clinics.
Asthma Published research Health Promotion & Education Bullying Children's Lung HealthNovember 2020Why do Victims become Perpetrators of Peer Bullying? Moral Disengagement in the Cycle of Violence
Previous studies have shown that there is overlap between victimization and the perpetration of bullying, and social and motivational variables are known to mediate this relationship. However, the effects of different moral disengagement strategies have not been studied, despite the fact that they exert a major influence on aggressive behavior.
Published research Child Health, Development & Education BullyingOctober 2020Borderline Personality Disorder and Peers: A Scoping Review of Friendship, Victimization and Aggression Studies
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by instability in interpersonal relationships. To date no reviews have scoped the extant research on peer relationship functioning for young people diagnosed with BPD or showing borderline personality features. The current review provides this scoping of studies on all facets of peer relationships, including friendship quality, peer victimization and bullying and peer aggression, and relevant studies of social–cognitive processes with relevance to peer relationships. From 282 studies identified up to August 2019, 39 studies were included for review.
Published research Health Promotion & Education Child Health, Development & Education Developmental Pathways & Social Policy Bullying Youth HealthMarch 2020Acute Tryptophan Depletion Moja-De: A Method to Study Central Nervous Serotonin Function in Children and Adolescents
Serotonin (5-HT) is widely implicated as a key neurotransmitter relevant to a range of psychiatric disorders and psychological processes. The role of central nervous 5-HT function underlying these processes can be examined through serotonergic challenge methodologies.
Published research Child Health, Development & Education ADHD Youth Mental HealthJune 2020Chronic health conditions, mental health and the school: A narrative review
School-based social risk processes in the lives of young people with chronic health conditions are likely to contribute to risk of psychological problems
Published research Health Promotion & Education Human Capability Ear Health Youth Mental HealthFebruary 2020Facilitators and barriers to the implementation of motivational interviewing for bullying perpetration in school settings
Results indicated a number factors which influenced the uptake of Motivational Interviewing in schools
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingSeptember 2019Moral Disengagement of Pure Bullies and Bully/Victims: Shared and Distinct Mechanisms
This study advances bullying research by extending the role of moral disengagement in bullying episodes beyond pure bullies to victims, both pure victims and bully/victims
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingJuly 2019Telling an Adult at School about Bullying: Subsequent Victimization and Internalizing Problems
To prevent persistent victimization, schools and teachers need to be better equipped to respond effectively when a student first becomes a target of bullying
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingJune 2019No detectable effects of acute tryptophan depletion on short-term immune system cytokine levels in healthy adults
The acute tryptophan depletion condition did not result in significant changes to cytokine concentrations for the entire study sample
Published researchMarch 2019Concurrent developmental course of sleep problems and emotional/behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence as reflected by the dysregulation profile
Findings provide evidence for a strong association in the development of sleep problems and difficulties of dysregulation with emotion, cognition, and aggression
Published research Health Promotion & Education Diabetes and ObesityApril 2019Functional connectivity of the vigilant-attention network in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
ADHD patients showed substantially diminished intrinsic coupling for 7 connections and increased coupling for 4 connections
Published research Health Promotion & Education ADHD Youth Mental HealthFebruary 2019Serotonin and aggressive behaviour in children and adolescents: a systematic review
Findings were mixed, with support both for negative and for positive associations of central nervous 5-HT function with aggression in children and adolescents
Published research Health Promotion & EducationJanuary 2019Friendly Schools Universal Bullying Prevention Intervention: Effectiveness with Secondary School Students
This study demonstrates the importance of considering the effectiveness of secondary school bullying prevention interventions and real-world implementation support
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingDecember 2018Impact of the Friendly Schools whole-school intervention on transition to secondary school and adolescent bullying behaviour
These findings demonstrate the immediate value of whole-school interventions to reduce bullying behaviour and associated harms among students
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingSeptember 2018Beyond the reactive-proactive dichotomy: Rage, revenge, reward, and recreational aggression predict early high school bully and bully/victim status
We discuss the implications of addressing Revenge and Recreation, as well as Reward and Rage aggression motives, for bullying prevention and intervention strategies
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingAugust 2018Using acute tryptophan depletion to investigate predictors of treatment response in adolescents with major depressive disorder
The major hypothesis of this study is that acute tryptophan depletion will be negatively associated with mood and cognitive functioning
Published research Health Promotion & Education Depression and AnxietyAugust 2018The school experiences of children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes in Western Australia
Elevated levels of emotional difficulties among school students with T1D and variable levels of support from school staff to assist these students to manage their diabetes at school
Diabetes (Type 1) Published research Health Promotion & Education Diabetes and Obesity Youth Mental HealthJune 2018Does the Risk Outweigh the Benefits? Adolescent Responses to Completing Health Surveys
Self-reported experiences of adolescents in population-based samples when completing health-related surveys on topics with varying potential for evoking distres
Published research Health Promotion & Education Youth HealthMay 2018Effects of Dietary Acute Tryptophan Depletion (ATD) on NPY Serum Levels in Healthy Adult Humans Whilst Controlling for Methionine Supply-A Pilot Study
Acute tryptophan depletion, and therefore, diminished substrate availability for brain 5-HT synthesis did not lead to significant changes in serum neuropeptide Y concentrations over time
Published research Health Promotion & Education Youth Mental HealthApril 2018Motivational interviewing as a positive response to high-school bullying
We provide a narrative review of Motivational Interviewing and map its core features onto the extant literature on self‐reported motivations for bullying
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingMarch 2018Dietary patterns, body mass index and inflammation: Pathways to depression and mental health problems in adolescents
We aimed to elucidate the longitudinal relationship between dietary patterns, adiposity, inflammation and mental health in a population of adolescents.
Published research Health Promotion & EducationJanuary 2018Bullying and mental health amongst Australian children and young people with cystic fibrosis
This study describes the peer bullying experiences of young people with CF, and examines associations between school bullying and the psychological well-being of these young people
Cystic Fibrosis Published research Health Promotion & Education Youth Mental HealthOctober 2017Differences in serum zinc levels in acutely ill and remitted adolescents and young adults with bulimia nervosa in comparison with healthy controls – a cross-sectional pilot study
Research has implicated that changes in Zn metabolism may be associated with the biological underpinnings of eating disorders, in particular anorexia nervosa.
Published research Health Promotion & EducationJuly 2017Properties of the DASS-21 in an Australian Community Adolescent Population
This study evaluated for a multifactor structure in the DASS-21 teenagers and the specifics of the 3 subscales for teenagers in general at different stages.
Published research Health Promotion & EducationMay 2017Mental health problems among 4–17-year-olds with hearing problems: results from a nationally representative study
Clinicians caring for children and young people with hearing problems should be alert for heightened risk of specific mental health problems based on age and the nature of hearing problems.
Published research Health Promotion & Education Human Capability Ear Health Youth Mental HealthDecember 2016Reactive aggression in young patients with ADHD—a critical role for small provocations
ADHD is one of the most commonly diagnosed disorders in child and adolescent psychiatry and is characterized by attentional deficits, hyperactivity, and impulsivity
Published research Health Promotion & EducationDecember 2016Developmental trajectories of sleep problems from childhood to adolescence both predict and are predicted by emotional and behavioral problems
Findings from this study provide empirical evidence for the heterogeneity of sleep problems and their development
Published research Health Promotion & EducationDecember 2016Bipolar disorder in children and adolescents: diagnostic inpatient rates from 2000 to 2013 in Germany
The rate of Bipolar Disorder as a discharge diagnosis in German minors has increased significantly, consistently exceeding the general trend for a rise in rates for mental disorders
Published research Academic Biostatistics Health Promotion & EducationMay 2016Cyber Agression
Information and communication technology has allowed individuals to engage in aggressive behavior on multiple distinct platforms with different capabilities
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingJanuary 2016Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
The new diagnostic category of disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) was introduced in DSM-5
Published research Health Promotion & EducationOctober 2015Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder in ICD-11: a new disorder or ODD with a specifier for chronic irritability
This letter congratulates Mulraney et al. regarding their paper on disruptive mood dysregulation disorder in children with ADHD.
Published research Health Promotion & Education ADHDJanuary 2015Online Moral Disengagement, Cyberbullying, and Cyber-Aggression. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
The study of moral disengagement has greatly informed research on aggression and bullying.
Published research Health Promotion & Education Bullying Cyber SafetyDecember 2014Reactive aggression and peer victimization from pre-kindergarten to first grade: accounting for hyperactivity and teacher-child conflict
Teacher-child conflict in kindergarten predicted subsequent increases in victimization, reactive aggression, and hyperactivity
Published research Health Promotion & Education BullyingAugust 2014Bullying Prevalence Across Contexts: A Meta-analysis Measuring Cyber and Traditional Bullying
Bullying involvement in any form can have lasting physical and emotional consequences for adolescents.
Published research Health Promotion & Education Bullying Cyber SafetyJune 2014Does Gender Moderate the Association Between Children's Behaviour and Teacher-Child Relationship in the Early Years?
The purpose of this study was to examine whether teachers’ reports of relationship quality were associated with children's behaviour and gender.
Published research Health Promotion & EducationJanuary 2014Teacher–Child Relationship, Parenting, and Growth in Likelihood and Severity of Physical Aggression in the Early School Years
This study investigated the likelihood of children showing problems with parent-rated physical aggression, and on the severity of problems, for 374 children.
Published research Health Promotion & Education -
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