The COVID-19 pandemic and associated system disruptions are impacting all children and young people (CYP) in Australia. For vulnerable groups of CYP, who already experience poorer health and well-being, these impacts are amplified. Challenges include reduced access to usual services, reduced community supports, financial instability, unemployment and other life circumstances that threaten to widen pre-existing inequities. This article aims to present the reasons for vulnerability of CYP during the pandemic, and to focus on actions by health professionals that mitigate additional challenges to their health and well-being. Using a rapid review of the literature and team-based discussions, eight vulnerable groups were identified: CYP with disabilities, mental health conditions and chronic diseases; CYP facing financial hardship; within the child protection system; Aboriginal; migrant and refugee; in residential care; rural; and isolated CYP. Recommendations for action are required at the level of governments, health professionals and researchers and include enhancing access to health and social supports, prioritising vulnerable CYP in resuming health activity and elevating the voice of CYP in designing the response. The pandemic can be conceptualised as an opportunity to create a more equitable society as we document the inequities that have been exacerbated. Vulnerable groups of CYP must be recognised and heard, and targeted actions must focus on improving their health outcomes during the pandemic and beyond.

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This paper reports research showing that a modified version of Prochaska & DiClemente's (1982) stage model of behaviour change can account for dietary fat reduction in a sample of 133 young English adults. Prochaska & DiClemente's model posits five sequential stages through which people pass in the course of behaviour change. The current research developed a new, simplified staging questionnaire which successfully categorized respondents into groups whose dietary fat consumption differed as the model predicts—that is, those in later stages were consuming less dietary fat than those in earlier stages. The research focused on four social and psychological processes which Prochaska & DiClemente argue operate most powerfully at the four different stage transitions. Results showed that two of the processes (consciousness raising and self‐liberation) could, between them, distinguish all five stages from each other. The two processes had their decisive impact in the predicted order (i.e. consciousness raising discriminating between earlier stages and self‐liberation distinguishing between later stages) but they did not operate at the particular stage transitions reported in Prochaska and his colleagues’ own research. The other two processes (i.e. self re‐evaluation and helping relationships) did not discriminate between people at different stages. This suggests that Prochaska & DiClemente's findings cannot entirely be replicated in this domain.

(Hilton and Slugoski, 1986), that the common sense criterion of causality is that of an 'abnormal condition' rather than constant conjunction as instantiated in the A N 0 V A model of causal attribution (Kelley, 1967(Kelley, , 1973.

Aim: Currently, there is some controversy that the medical examination following allegations of child sexual abuse may further traumatise the child. Access for children to appropriate care may be hindered if decisions about referral are influenced by personal beliefs, rather than by recognition of the potential health and psychological benefits of the assessment. We aimed to study the expectations and emotional responses of children and their parents to the medical examination. Methods:We conducted a prospective quantitative and qualitative study at the Children's Hospital at Westmead. Participants completed questionnaires pre-examination and post-examination, including Children's Anxiety and Pain Scales. Clinicians recorded a Genital Examination Distress Scale and a questionnaire about potentially prognostic variables. Results: Parents found the medical examination significantly less stressful than they had anticipated. They highlighted the importance of being involved in the process, the child's reaction, staff attitudes and the doctor's explanations. Although most parents expected that the medical would be stressful for their child, this did not correlate with the children's reports of feeling scared beforehand. Increased parental and child distress were significantly associated with the child being 12 years or older. The type of abuse was not significantly linked to any of the parent or child self-reports. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the medical examination is not as stressful as expected and support the recommendation that timely medical assessment by appropriately trained professionals should be offered for all children following allegations of sexual abuse.