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Item Open Access Evaluating exercise interventions to improve activity, participation and quality of life for those living with complex forms of cerebral palsy(Australian Catholic University., 2026)This doctoral thesis aims to evaluate the effect of exercise, and more broadly physical activity, on adults with cerebral palsy (CP), particularly individuals who use wheelchairs to access the community. There are few studies that provide uncertain evidence to guide exercise and physical activity interventions for adults with CP. Adults with CP often face greater health challenges compared to their non-disabled peers, making it difficult to achieve the potentially life-enhancing and risk-reducing benefits of physical activity. This issue is worsened for adults with CP living in regional and remote areas, where both health specialists and opportunities for community-based physical activity are often limited. To address the research question, this thesis explores three identified research gaps: 1) the lack of research on adults with CP, particularly individuals who use wheelchairs in the community, 2) the uncertain effects or guidance for implementing exercise and physical activity interventions that focus on quality of life and participation – attendance and involve, and the feasibility of implementing an evidence based strategy (FitSkills) in a regional setting. The doctoral project involved conducting a systematic review (study 1) to understand the current literature on exercise for adults with CP to improve quality of life and participation. Additionally, the project included speaking directly with adults with CP who use wheelchairs, about their wants and needs regarding physical activity participation. Based on the findings from these studies, the thesis proposes the adaptation of an existing community-based exercise gym intervention (FitSkills), using the guidance from the initial research phases. The aim is to determine whether a peer-mentored gym-based intervention is feasible in a regional setting and has the potential to improve quality of life and participation for adults with CP. The implications of this research are: 1) for future research, it provides a foundation to further explore the sustainability of community based program in regional communities; 2) for practice, it encourages councils and local service providers to develop the confidence, skills, and tools to implement community based physical activity programs such as a peer-mentored gym intervention; 3) and for individuals with CP, it offers opportunities to take part in authentic physical activity within their communities, in environments that support autonomy, individuality, and positive social attitudes.Item Open Access Children's experiences of domestic and family violence : Findings from a meta-synthesis(Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, 2017-04)[Extract from the Executive Summary] Domestic and family violence is a significant issue experienced by many Australian children, which can have severe detrimental impacts to their health, development and wellbeing. Despite the significance of this issue, it is only recently that children have been included in research that seeks to understand the impacts that domestic and family violence may have on their lives. To collate and review the evidence from this emerging research, the Australian Government Department of Social Services commissioned the Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS) to undertake a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies carried out with children on the issue of domestic and family violence. The study aimed to inform the development of evidence-based policy and practice by answering the following research questions: What is the extent and nature of children’s qualitative evidence available to inform domestic and family violence social policy and practice? What does this evidence tell us about children’s experiences and needs in relation to domestic and family violence? Similar to systematic reviews that focus on quantitative research, a meta-synthesis ensures a rigorous approach to the collection, collation and analysis of qualitative research to produce a deeper understanding of a particular issue (Walsh, Corcoran, Crooks, Cooke, & Cummings, 2016; Finfgeld, 2003). This meta-synthesis brought together and critically assessed disparate studies on children’s experiences of domestic and family violence, to produce new and integrative interpretations of findings to inform research priorities and helping to shape policy and practice.Item Restricted Grandparenting in migration : Childcare practices of rural-urban migrant elderly in China(Australian Catholic University, 2026-02-04)Childcare support tends to be regarded as a normative duty of grandparents in China (Lin and Mao, 2022). Increasingly grandparents from rural areas relocate to cities to provide child care for their adult children. Qi (2018; 2021) terms these grandparents ‘floating grandparents’. After arriving in Shenzhen, the rural grandparents may join both middle-class and low-income families, depending on their adult children's social status. There are limited studies which explore floating grandparents, negotiation of family duties, grandparenting practices, in particular, gender practices and class. This study was based on 49 qualitative in-depth interviews with rural-urban migrant grandmothers and grandfathers who moved to Shenzhen to assist with childrearing. Inspired by the doing family approach, this thesis explores how grandparents fulfill their childcare duties after migration by analyzing intergenerational cooperation practices, grandparents’ practices of balancing economic activities and childcare roles, as well as grandfathers’ construction of masculinity among rural migrant grandfathers. The diversity of floating grandparenting is embedded not only in the social disparity between rural and urban, but also in the social status of their adult children. This PhD thesis contributes to the study of grandparenting by identifying key differences in grandparenting practices and the negotiation of family roles between rural grandparents with low-income adult children versus those with affluent adult children. Moreover, this study also contributes to studies by exploring rural floating grandfathers’ differing practices in negotiating caregiving roles and aging masculinity.Item Open Access Sources of attraction : Intellectuals and the far-right(Australian Catholic University, 2025-10-31)This dissertation uses a unique framework through which to examine how and why philosophers and other intellectuals are attracted to extreme, often violent ideologies, particularly, in this instance, Fascism and the modern Far-right. At the same time, I examine how intellectuals’ thoughts, ideas and even their follies have influenced modern Far-right thinking and ideologies. It identifies four themes from the literature which, I argue, have driven and again now drive some intellectuals’ embrace of anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian sentiments and everything that comes from this. The framework develops four themes 1. Elitism and Exceptionalism: these interlinking notions underpin anti-democratic leanings of some thinkers that abhor the thought of delegation of the political to the masses. 2. Apocalyptic and Utopian Ideation: which perhaps begins with Plato’s ‘Theory of Forms’ –informs some intellectuals’ fascination with projects for the creation of a utopian society through destruction. 3. Spiritual renewal and transformation: interconnected with the last, is the concept of transcendence. Within this concept are several types of religions and spiritualities that feed into different forms of Far-right thinking, and 4. The Aesthetics of Violence: includes modern expressions of the current Alt-right aesthetic, and the broader attraction of the aesthetics of violence to intellectuals. To examine the attractions of these four themes, I examine four case studies of intellectuals who have inspired (or been inspired by) Far-right movements. Two are historical, looking at the work of Julius Evola and Ernst Jünger, who continue to influence current Far-right thought, but who were active during the interwar period. Jünger had an ambivalent relationship with Nazism and Fascism more widely in Europe, Evola, however, attempted to join the Italian Fascist party, only to be rejected on more than one occasion as ‘undesirable.’ As well as the writings of current Far-right philosophers, Alexander Dugin, with his ‘traditionalism’ or ‘fourth political theory,’ I also examine Nick Land and his ‘Dark enlightenment,’ which has excited many ‘tech bros’ associated with the contemporary US Far-right.Item Open Access Investigating white matter microstructure predating and following youth cannabis use, using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging from the IMAGEN longitudinal consortium(Australian Catholic University, 2026-01-29)Cannabis is one of the most commonly used psychoactive substances worldwide, with 228 million users, or 4.4% of individuals aged between 15 and 64, in 2022 alone. Adolescence is commonly a period when substance use starts and is also when substances are used at a higher rate than in the general adult population, with 5.5% of young people aged 15-16 also using cannabis in 2022, compared to 4.4% of adults. Meanwhile, the strength and availability of cannabis products have been increasing over the last decade. Of relevance, the main psychoactive compound of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), binds to endocannabinoid (eCB) receptors located in the brain to exert its psychoactive effects. Importantly, the cannabinoid receptors are part of a complex endocannabinoid system that plays a key role in regulating adolescent neurodevelopment, including white matter pathways that connect brain regions to ensure efficient neural communication. Therefore, the adolescent brain – including white matter integrity – may be vulnerable to changes in relation to cannabinoid exposure. Emerging evidence has examined the microstructural integrity of white matter fibres using advanced neuroimaging techniques including diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI). The preliminary dMRI body of work suggests that cannabis use, especially early onset or heavy or frequent use, may have a negative impact on the white matter microstructure of the human brain. However, at the time of the thesis commencement, major limitations of the literature were outstanding and affected the understanding of the association between cannabis use and white matter microstructure. Firstly, an up-to-date systematic synthesis of the dMRI literature to date was lacking, preventing a systematic understanding of the association between cannabis use and white matter microstructure. Additionally, no longitudinal dMRI studies have examined white matter microstructural differences in individuals who use cannabis compared to controls, prior to and following the onset of cannabis use. Study 1 comprises a systematic literature review (SLR), pre-registered in PROSPERO and reported as per PRISMA guidelines. The SLR summarised the dMRI evidence to date on white matter differences in adolescent and adult individuals who use cannabis, compared to controls. It included 30 dMRI studies, encompassing 1,457 individuals who use cannabis and 1,441 controls. Across the reviewed cannabis using samples, the average age of first use of cannabis was 15.4 years, the regular use of cannabis (as defined by each study) started at a mean of 16.1 years, with an average use duration of 8.2 years. There was consistent evidence of group differences in primarily diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics. However, the findings regarding the location, direction and the type of DTI metric were heterogenous. The most commonly reported group differences in white matter integrity were seen in selected tracts - the corpus callosum (CC), and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) - and as a function of distinct DTI metrics - Fractional Anisotropy (FA) and Mean Diffusivity (MD). There was also emerging yet mixed evidence that FA differences correlated with cannabis use parameters (e.g., age of onset, and duration of cannabis use), suggesting dose-related effects of cannabis on white matter. Additionally, the dMRI literature was limited by the lack of longitudinal studies examining brain integrity prior to the onset of cannabis use; a limited assessment of adolescent samples, and other methodological issues. These included: the use of unclear/heterogenous cannabis use metrics, inconsistently matched samples, or use of outdated neuroimaging analysis techniques. As such, a series of two dMRI experiments were conducted in this PhD thesis, to address key limitations of the research to date in adolescent samples. Indeed, as all participants reported being cannabis naïve at baseline, we were able to examine for the first time (to the author’s knowledge) white matter changes before and after cannabis use onset, a key novelty of this thesis. Experiment 1 aimed to investigate for the first time white matter differences (i.e., FA) predating and following adolescent cannabis use onset, as measured by Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS), controlling for alcohol and nicotine dependence, as well as levels of sensation seeking. The secondary aim was to investigate associations between white matter alterations and with chronicity of cannabis use (e.g., age of onset, frequency), levels of alcohol and nicotine use, and personality variables (e.g., impulsivity) related to substance use. Analyses were run controlling for alcohol and nicotine dependence, as well as levels of sensation seeking. A sample of 55 adolescents was selected from the IMAGEN longitudinal dataset. The sample comprised 27 individuals who had no history of any substance use at age 14 but who commenced cannabis use by age 19 (termed ‘cannabis users’), and 27 controls who had not commenced using cannabis by age 19. These groups were matched on general ability index, pubertal development, impulsivity scores, alcohol, and tobacco use at baseline age 14, and on age at both baseline and follow up. The cannabis group started using cannabis at 16 years of age and were consuming cannabis on average 7.8 days per month. The results from Experiment 1, indicated no significant group differences at baseline before the onset of cannabis use, or in the average white matter across time (i.e., average of baseline and follow up for the cannabis group, vs average of baseline and follow up for the control group). Also, there were no significant differences between how the groups changed over time (i.e., change from baseline to follow up for the cannabis group, vs change from baseline to follow up for the control group). The lack of significant group differences precluded the running of correlations with substance use metrics. These non-significant effects might have reflected a true lack of difference; or dose-response issues, whereby the low-frequency of cannabis use reported by this sample were insufficiently high for white matter differences to be identified. Alternatively, small differences may have been present which could be detected only with more precise measures of white matter integrity, or with larger sample sizes. Experiment 2 was designed to address key limitations of previous dMRI research and the first experiment. It comprised the first investigation of white matter microstructure in adolescents who use cannabis, compared to controls via the novel dMRI analysis tool Fixel Based Analysis (FBA). Indeed, FBA provides a more precise metric of white matter microstructure than traditional DTI tools, especially in areas encapsulating crossing white matter fibres. Using the same sample of in a well-matched cannabis users and controls as Experiment 1, the primary aim of Experiment 2 was to investigate differences in white matter microstructure prospectively using FBA. This was undertaken using both exploratory whole brain analysis and hypothesis driven ROI-analyses focused on the SLF and CC, accounting for alcohol and nicotine dependence, and sensation seeking as covariates. The secondary aim was to investigate correlations between white matter integrity differences and cannabis use metrics, levels of alcohol and nicotine use, and personality variables associated with substance use. The results from Experiment 2 were non-significant when using FBA whole brain analyses. Specifically, there were no significant effects of group across time (i.e., average of baseline and follow up for the cannabis group, vs average of baseline and follow up for the control group), or group-by-time on FBA metrics (i.e., fibre density (FD), fibre cross-section (FC), or fibre density cross-section (FDC)). The results remained non-significant both before and after controlling for covariates. Meanwhile, significant results emerged using region of interest (ROI) analysis. Specifically, there were a small number of voxels implicated in significant group by time effects on the CC and SLF. Specifically, cannabis users showed greater change over time in FC in the CC and the SLF, whereas controls remained relatively stable. However, there were no significant correlations between FC in the SLF and CC, and behavioural variables. Analysis of baseline differences also indicated that there were also no significant whole brain differences between prospective cannabis users and controls, both before and after controlling for covariates. However, ROI analyses indicated that FDC SLF at baseline was significantly higher in prospective cannabis users than controls. Additionally, FD in the left SLF-II was significantly higher in cannabis users and controls at baseline, after controlling for AUDIT, FTND, and sensation seeking, and this was negatively correlated with days of alcohol use at follow-up. Overall, the dMRI literature to date to date suggests that earlier onset and heavy cannabis use by both adolescents and adults is associated with differences in white matter microstructure. However, there is mixed evidence for alterations associated with low-frequency cannabis use, with emerging differences evident in specific white matter fibre tracts (e.g., the SLF and CC). The findings from Experiments 1 and 2 suggest that white matter differences are associated with low-frequency cannabis use during adolescence are not detectable using TBSS (Experiment 1) but were detected using FBA in select white matter fibre tracts (e.g., CC, SLF), but primarily driven by white matter microstructure differences evident prior to onset (Experiment 2). However, the findings from the two experiments are the first (to the author’s knowledge) to measure white matter microstructure prospectively both before and after the onset of adolescent cannabis use. As such, further replication research is needed to draw reliable conclusions regarding predisposing factors for cannabis use onset. Additionally, white matter differences in populations of reporting heavy cannabis, compared to controls, likely differ from those from populations with low levels of cannabis use. As such, future research should focus on dose-response effects, comparing the varying impacts of heavy, moderate and low-level use on white matter microstructure, and neuroanatomical outcomes in general. Overall, more longitudinal multimodal neuroimaging research in young people who use cannabis is needed to identify those adolescents who might be more vulnerable or resilient, to experiencing cannabis use related harms, and the possible long-lasting implications for their mental health and wellbeing.
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