The Human Early Learning Partnership is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of children through interdisciplinary research and mobilizing knowledge.
News and Events
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News
Register for CIFAR’s event: Building Children’s Resilient Brains & Bodies In A Rapidly Changing World
On October 16th, CIFAR’s Child and Development Program, will host an event inspired by Clyde Hertzman, founder of HELP. More information, including registration details, are provided by CIFAR below. An internationally renowned scientist and child advocate, Clyde Hertzman revolutionized our understanding of how societal forces influence growing brains and bodies. He showed how early life … Continued
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Events
MDI Data Trends & Exploring the New Data Dashboard
Join Dr. Eva Oberle, scientific lead for the Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI), and others from the MDI team, as they share highlights from the latest MDI data collection (2022-23 school year) from over 47,000 children in grades 4 through 8 in BC.
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News
Introducing the MDI Data Dashboard: Unlocking Insights into Children’s Well-Being
The Human Early Learning Partnership is delighted to announce the launch of our Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI) Data Dashboard — a new tool for exploring MDI data from participating BC school districts and independent schools over the past five years.
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News
Dr. Christine Voss Joins HELP as Faculty Member
Dr. Voss is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and is primarily based at the UBC Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management on the UBC Okanagan (UBCO) campus in Kelowna. She is also an Investigator with the British Columbia Children’s Hospital Research Institute and an Affiliate Investigator with Interior Health.
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Data in Action
Data & Connection Series: Community-Led Research in Comox Valley
In an effort to address concerns about rising EDI vulnerability rates in the region, the Building Connections for Valley Families initiative was launched in 2019 to collectively inform and engage with communities with the goal of enhancing early years supports and services for children (conception to age 8), their families, and the Comox Valley.
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News
Q&A with Kinwa Bluesky: Our Stories are Our Laws
This month, we sat down with Kinwa Bluesky (Senior Manager, Indigenous Initiatives) to learn more about her journey to HELP, her current research as a PhD candidate with the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law, as well as her hopes for Indigenous families and children, both in BC and beyond.
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News
Guest Column: The Time is Now — A Focus on Social and Emotional Learning
In January 2023, HELP hosted a 2-part webinar series presented by internationally renowned Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) scholar and former HELP Director Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichel, alongside researchers from the SEL Research Lab. The following guest column is a contribution from Dr. Denise Buote, SEL Research Lab Team Member, highlighting some key messages from the webinar series, along with links to the webinar recordings, presentation slides, and other related resources.
HELP's unique approach
Relationships
Reciprocity, accountability and respect are at the foundation of HELP’s longstanding relationships with communities, organizations, institutions and governments across BC and Canada. These relationships, along with guidance from an Aboriginal Steering Committee (ASC), contribute to our research, data and knowledge mobilization initiatives. Learn more about the Aboriginal Steering Committee.
Data
The Child Development Monitoring System safely and reliably gathers population-level data about the developmental health and well-being of children and adolescents at multiple times between infancy and 18 years of age. It is the foundation for much of the leading-edge research and knowledge mobilization undertaken at HELP. Learn more about the Child Development Monitoring System.
Expertise
Faculty, researchers and affiliates at HELP hold scientific expertise across a wide range of disciplines, contributing to a unique and diverse program of research that situates HELP research at the forefront of important health and equity issues. Learn more about HELP research.
Impact
HELP leads collaborative and inclusive processes that transform data and research into action. Across both practice and policy, HELP is focused on supporting evidence-informed change across systems, institutions and in communities. Learn more about HELP’s knowledge mobilization and research impact.
Publications
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Community
Understanding the influence of community-level determinants on children’s social and emotional well-being: a systems science and participatory approach.
2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Poon B., Atchison C., Kwan A.By employing a novel systems science and participatory approach, we were able to co-produce a series of causal loop diagrams that detail the complex relationships between variables operating at the community or neighborhood environment level (e.g., features of the built environment such as: housing type, access, availability, and location; parks and greenspace, facilities such as community services, and other service infrastructure such as transit), and highlight the individual and collective impacts these relationships can have on the subsystem surrounding a child’s social and emotional well-being.
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Mental Health
Prevalence of mental health disorders among immigrant, refugee, and nonimmigrant children and youth in British Columbia, Canada.
JAMA Network
Gadermann AM, Gagne Petteni M, Janus M, Puyat JH, Guhn M, Georgiades K.These findings show differences in diagnostic mental disorder prevalence among first- and second-generation immigrant and refugee children and youth relative to nonimmigrant children and youth.
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COVID-19
School staff and teachers during the second year of COVID-19: Higher anxiety symptoms, higher psychological distress, and poorer mental health compared to the general population.
Journal of Affective Disorders Reports.
Hutchison SM, Watts A, Gadermann A, Oberle E, Oberlander TF, Lavoie PM, et al.These results show that priorities to reduce mental health challenges are critical during a public health crisis, not only at the beginning, but also one year later.
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Outdoor Play
Perceived challenges of early childhood educators in promoting unstructured outdoor play: an ecological systems perspective.
Early Years
Cheng T., Brussoni M., Han C., Munday F., Zeni M.We conducted five focus groups with 40 professionals working in the early childhood education field in British Columbia, Canada, to examine their experiences and perceived challenges in promoting children’s unstructured outdoor play.
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Environment
Neighborhood environmental exposures and incidence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A population-based cohort study.
Environment International
Yuchi W., Brauer M., Czekajlo A., Davies HW., Davis Z., Guhn M., et al.We found evidence suggesting environmental inequalities where children living in greener neighborhoods with low air pollution had substantially lower risk of ADHD compared to those with higher air pollution and lower greenspace exposure.
Indigenous Initiatives at HELP