The Columbus Pilot Project (Columbus) in the Family Court of Western Australia (FCWA) is an early intervention initiative aimed at achieving better outcomes for parents and their children in matters where there have been allegations of domestic violence or child abuse. This article provides an overview of the FCWA, a detailed description of the Columbus process and describes the development of a multimethod longitudinal evaluation model. Quantitative data (including cost/outcome analysis) and qualitative data generated from stakeholder and client interviews suggest that Columbus provides an innovative and effective way of managing these highly conflicted cases.

Child custody decisions on separated families seldom acknowledge the impact that such decisions have on subsequent partners of the biological parents. New partners are thus “invisible” in litigation in the Family Court. This project utilised a qualitative research methodology to explore this experience with a purposive experiential sample of 12 second partners. The primary themes identified in thematic content analysis were exclusion and invisibility in a system over which they had little control. The findings suggest that the negative psychological impact would be lessened if a policy of inclusion was adopted in the Family Court process.

The acquisition of social competence is an important developmental task for children. This review examines how children's characteristics and environmental factors contribute to children's achievement of social competence. Environmental factors are addressed through Bronfenbrenner's (1999) ecological systems model of the microsystem, mesosystem and exosystem. The microsystem includes the home environment with parent-parent, parent-child and sibling relationships. The mesosystem includes the school environment with peer and teacher relationships. Finally, the exosystem incorporates indirect environments such as parent work, economic status and the media. Issues of reciprocal effects are addressed and the suggestion is made that social competence is the result of a pattern of experiences rather than one or two major causes. It is recommended that future research focus on children's experiences that have lasting effects.

This contribution outlines the development of the counsellor-led Case Assessment Conference model that was implemented in the Family Court of Western Australia in July, 2004. It highlights how lessons learned from the Columbus Pilot project informed the development and practice inherent in the model. The changing role of the social scientist and the increased interdisciplinary collaboration have contributed to a greater integration of expertise in seeking to achieve better outcomes for separating parents and their children. We note some early anecdotal results that are now being explored in the formal evaluation.

The development of the counsellor-led Case Assessment Conference model that was implemented in the Family Court of Western Australia in July 2004 is outlined. The changing role of the social scientist and the increased interdisciplinary collaboration which contribute to integrated expertise in achieving better outcomes for separating parents and their children are explored.

Many schools have adopted relational approaches to attend to the social context in which learning transpires. More recently however, such approaches and their supporters have been criticized for not examining the school context in its entirety and the student experience within this context. The current research sought to critically explore young adolescents’ experiences within the context of their school. Fifteen year seven students in an Australian primary school were interviewed about their experiences of their school context. The data were analysed using a thematic analysis and a question-ordered matrix was constructed to aid the detection of themes and sub-themes from the data. Three major themes were identified as a result. These included: the people within the school context, the social roles of the adolescents’, and the values the school espouses. These findings suggest that there are a number of factors in addition to relational aspects within the school context that impact on young adolescents. This exploratory qualitative study offers a ‘counter adult-centric’ view of young adolescents’ experiences within their school. It also illustrates the potential value in transforming the school context to provide opportunities to experience influence, responsibility, self-determination, meaningful participation and community within the school.

This article begins by summarising the Columbus Pilot Project, designed to evaluate a managed interdisciplinary approach to cases of domestic violence and child abuse in the Family Court of Western Australia. A working hypothesis informing the project is that, compared with traditional litigation processes, a managed approach to these cases will yield outcomes more consistent with children's best interests at lower long-term cost to families, the community and the Court. The main focus of the article is a progress report on evaluation design issues associated with mapping the costs in these cases.

The Columbus Pilot project was developed by the Family Court of Western Australia to assist, enable, and encourage separated parents to acknowledge the debilitating effects of continuing conflict, violence or abusive behaviour, and to encourage couples to resolve their differences without recourse to prolonged litigation in the Family Court. The Project has acted as a catalyst for a number of changes as both the judicial officers and counselling service staff have developed new skills and knowledge in what is a difficult area of family litigation and dispute resolution.

Abstract This study examined the effects of different parent residency arrangements on the growth of competence and self-esteem in Australian primary school-aged children. It employed a matched sample of 136 non-clinical, single parent children of both genders resident with parents of both genders matched with children from two parent families. Data measuring children's competence and self-esteem were gathered on a range of dependent measures. Comparisons in performance of the single and two parent children were analysed in three ways: (1) family type; (2) family type and child gender, and (3) family type, child gender and parent residency group. The third analysis revealed that there were subtle but important differences in performance between and within each parent residency group not revealed by the other two analyses.

Sense of community (SOC) has been found to be a predictor of adult well-being and psychological health. Recent research has begun to explore adolescents' SOC. However, there is a dearth of research on the meaning children attach to their community and the development of their SOC, despite its potential for providing an understanding of important aspects of children's lives. Conversational interviews were conducted in schools with 46 children aged from 9 to 12 years. The results were analysed using an unfolding strategy. The findings indicate that for children, understandings of community focus on the relationships shared with the significant others central to their experience of childhood--family, friends, and neighbours, consistent with Bronfenbrenner's ecological framework. Children also described community in terms of environment, both built and natural. Further exploration of the children's understanding of community yielded insights into the role of activities, interactions, good and bad aspects of community and problem solving in their understanding of community. The implications of the research are discussed in terms of programme planning at the individual and systemic levels. Le sentiment d'appartenance àune communauté est un indicateur qui nous permet de prévoir la santé psychologique et le bien-être chez les adultes. Les chercheurs ont commencé récemment à explorer le sentiment d'appartenance à une communauté par les adolescents. Cependant peu de recherche a étéfaite sur le sens que les enfants donnent àla communauté à laquelle ils appartiennent et au développement de leur esprit communautaire. Ceci est important pour comprendre certains aspects essentiels de la vie des enfants. Nous avons conduit dans quelques écoles des entretiens non dirigés avec 46 enfants âgés de 9 à 12 ans. Les résultats ont été analysés étape par étape. Ils nous ont indiqué que la prise de conscience par les enfants de leur communauté proche dépendait de rapports-clés associés à leur expérience--en famille, avec leurs amis et leurs voisins, selon le modèle écologique de Bronfenbrenner. Les enfants décrivent également leur communauté en faisant des liens avec leur environnement (la nature et les bâtiments). D'autres études sur la manière dont les enfants assimilent la notion de communauté ont aidé à comprendre le rôle jouépar leurs activités, leurs interactions, les aspects positifs et négatifs de la vie de groupe et par la résolution des problèmes. Nous présenterons des applications de cette recherche à l'élaboration de programmes au niveau individuel et systémique. Keywords: ChildrenSense CommunityQualitative ResearchCommunity Psychology