This literature review was commissioned by the Office for Children and Early Childhood Development, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), as part of its Early Childhood Intervention Services (ECIS) Reform Project (Stage 2): Developing Options and Next Steps. This Project aims to significantly enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability of Victoria’s ECIS system...

Feelings, moods, emotions and behaviours are all inextricably linked. They influence how we function and respond to the demands of day-to-day life. They also help us shape our sense of wellbeing, or our ‘mental health’. The foundations for mental health are formed within the early infant-parent and caregiver relationships (Centre for Community Child Health, 2009)...

Parents can help children manage their emotions and behaviour through a variety of strategies including discipline, which might occasionally involve the use of negative consequences. However, physical punishment – causing a child pain or physical discomfort – is not only ineffective as a method of regulating children’s behaviour, but can also be harmful.

Major social, demographic and economic changes in Australia over the last 50 years have dramatically altered the conditions in which families are raising children. There is evidence that a significant number of children are facing worsening developmental and social outcomes as a result of this ‘social climate change’.

Recent changes in family and society have meant that the roles grandparents take on have changed. Many grandparents are playing a bigger and more responsible part of grandchild care than they may have expected, which means additional pressures on their time, their health and their finances. The increasing importance of grandparents, particularly as carers for...