Naomi C PriestAustralian National University | ANU
Naomi C Priest
PhD
About
140
Publications
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
Additional affiliations
March 2014 - August 2015
Publications
Publications (140)
Background: Evidence of racism's health harms among children and youth is rapidly increasing, though attention to impacts on physical health and biomarker outcomes is more emergent. We performed a systematic review of recent publications to examine the association between racism and health among children and youth, with a meta-analysis of the speci...
Background: Racism is a fundamental cause of health inequities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. We aimed to examine the potential to reduce inequities in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's mental health and sleep problems through eliminating interpersonal racial discrimination.
Methods: We drew on cross-sectional da...
Background
Early childhood interventions have the potential to reduce children's developmental inequities. We aimed to estimate the extent to which household income supplements for lower-income families in early childhood can close the gap in children's developmental outcomes and parental mental health.
Methods
Data were drawn from a nationally re...
This study investigates associations between religious involvement and identity and attitudes related to domestic violence using nationally representative cross‐sectional data from n = 1287 Australian adults in the 2018 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA). Linear regression models were used to analyse the association between religious inv...
Racism and discrimination are fundamental determinants of health inequities, with young people particularly vulnerable. Since the onset of the global COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020, reports of racism and discrimination rose sharply. This study examined direct discrimination, vicarious racial discrimination, heightened vigilance, worries about experienci...
Background
Lower maternal education is associated with higher body mass index (BMI) and higher chronic inflammation in offspring. Childhood adversity potentially mediates these associations. We examined the extent to which addressing childhood adversity could reduce socioeconomic inequities in these outcomes.
Methods
We analysed data from two earl...
Background:
International and population-specific evidence identifies elevated psychological distress prevalence among those experiencing interpersonal discrimination. We aim to quantify the potential whole-of-population contribution of interpersonal discrimination to psychological distress prevalence and Indigenous-non-Indigenous gaps in Australi...
Background
The relationship between childhood adversity and inflammation is well-established. Examination of positive experiences can provide a more complete understanding of intervention opportunities. We investigated associations of adverse and positive experiences, and their intersection, with inflammation in children and adolescents.
Methods
Da...
Background:
We examine: (1) the frequency of financial difficulties in Australian families with young children (0-8 years) in the early and later phases of the pandemic; (2) the extent to which parents' pre-pandemic socioeconomic disadvantage (SED) predicted financial difficulties; and (3) whether grandparent intergenerational SED further amplifie...
Discrimination has consistently been associated with multiple adverse health outcomes. Like other psychosocial stressors, discrimination is thought to impact health through stress-related physiologic pathways including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation, dysregulation of inflammation responses, and accelerated cellular aging. Give...
Family and domestic violence (FDV) is a major social, economic and health issue that is associated with a range of physical, mental and behavioural health outcomes. Religion and faith are powerful and influential in shaping the lives of many individuals and societies, in addition to the social practices, norms and structures that are significant in...
Reducing the rate of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in out-of-home care (OOHC) is a key Closing the Gap target committed to by all Australian governments. Current strategies are failing. The “gap” is widening, with the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in OOHC at 30 June 2020 being 11 time...
Racism and discrimination are fundamental determinants of health inequities, with children and young people particularly vulnerable. Reports of racism and discrimination rose sharply in 2020 along with the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We examined racism, discrimination (e.g. direct, vicarious, heightened vigilance, and worries about expe...
Objective
Positive childhood experiences (PCEs), that occur within secure and nurturing social environments, are fundamental to healthy physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development. However, reliable measures of these experiences are not yet widely available. We used data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) to empirica...
Objective: To quantify the prevalence of known health-related risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults, and their relationship with social determinants.
Methods: Weighted cross-sectional analysis of the 2018-19 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey; Odds Ratios for cumulative...
Background
Inflammation is one of key mechanisms linking childhood experiences to later chronic disease risk. Childhood adversity is associated with inflammation, but little is known about positive experiences. We examine how adverse and positive experiences are associated with inflammatory markers in late childhood, and whether they have an intera...
Background
Racism and racial discrimination are fundamental causes and determinants of health and health inequalities globally, with children and adolescents particularly vulnerable. Racial discrimination is a common stressor in the lives of many children and adolescents, with growing evidence of negative associations between racial discrimination...
This study investigates associations between religious involvement and identity and determinants of domestic violence using nationally representative cross-sectional data from n=1287 Australian adults in the 2018 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA). Linear regression models were used to analyse the association of religious involvement (fr...
Methods for calculating health indicators profoundly influence understanding of and action on population health and inequities. Age-standardization can be useful and is commonly applied to account for differences in age structures when comparing health indicators across groups. Age-standardized rates have well-acknowledged limitations, including th...
Background
Religious-based hate crimes are on the rise worldwide. However, the relationship of religious discrimination on health and well-being, especially earlier on the lifecourse, is largely understudied. This study examines the prevalence of religious discrimination and the relationship it has on social-emotional adjustment and sleep outcomes...
Racism, racial discrimination and child and youth health: a rapid evidence synthesis
Discrimination is a fundamental determinant of health and health inequities. However, despite the high prevalence of discrimination exposure, there is limited evidence specific to Indigenous populations on the link between discrimination and health. This study employs a validated measure to quantify experiences of everyday discrimination in a natio...
Introduction
Racism is a critical determinant of health and health inequities for children and youth. This protocol aims to update the first systematic review conducted by Priest et al (2013), including a meta-analysis of findings. Based on previous empirical data, it is anticipated that child and youth health will be negatively impacted by racism....
Ethn Dis. 2021;31(Suppl 1):285-288; doi:10.18865/ed.31.S1.285
Objective
To examine the prevalence of young childrens’ reported experiences of racial discrimination and to assess whether discriminatory experiences vary by gender, religion and country of birth.Methods
Data came from Speak Out Against Racism (SOAR), a cross-sectional study of 4664 public school students in grades 5–9 in two Australian states in...
This review aimed to synthesise studies examining the presence of gender stereotypes and biases expressed by young children aged 3–5 years, with a focus on informing early childhood settings. Our review located only 21 separate studies in 16 articles, highlighting a dearth of research in this area. There was substantial heterogeneity in the operati...
Background
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) predict poorer mental health across the life course but most of the extant research has employed ACE scores or individual adversities using retrospective data.
Objectives
To study the impact of ACEs on later mental health using not only ACEs scores and individual ACEs, but also latent class analysis...
Background:
It is well established that racism is a fundamental contributor to poor health and inequities. There is consistent evidence of high exposure to discrimination among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous Australian) peoples, but impacts have not been fully quantified, in part due to limited measurement tools. We aim to valid...
Introduction
There is a growing body of research showing associations between experiences of racism and poor health and wellbeing outcomes for children and adolescents. The aim of this review protocol is to update the first systematic review conducted by Priest et al. 2013, including a meta-analysis of findings. Based on previous empirical data, it...
Background
We aimed to estimate the association between exposure to adversity and inflammatory markers in mid (4 years) and late (11–12 years) childhood, and whether effects differ by type and timing of exposure.
Methods
Data sources: Barwon Infant Study (BIS; N = 510 analyzed) and Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC; N = 1156 analyzed...
This study examines the feasibility and acceptability of ‘Speak out against racism (SOAR)’ program to promote effective bystander responses to racism in Australian primary schools. A mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design was used. Students in Years 5 and 6 (10-12 years) across six schools completed surveys pre- and post-intervention (N=645; 52%...
Family and domestic violence (FDV) is a major public health and social issue that is associated with a range of physical, mental and behavioural health outcomes. Religion and faith are powerful and influential in shaping the lives of many individuals and societies, in addition to the social practices, norms and structures that are significant in un...
Objective
To determine the prevalence of direct and vicarious racial discrimination experiences from peer, school and societal sources, and examine associations between these experiences and socioemotional and sleep outcomes.
Methods
Data were analysed from a population representative cross-sectional study of n=4664 school students in years 5–9 (1...
Cardiometabolic disease is a leading cause of adult morbidity and mortality globally. There is considerable evidence that childhood adversity is associated with markers of cardiometabolic disease risk in childhood, including obesity, blood pressure trajectories, and chronic inflammation. Experiences of racial discrimination may be an important, yet...
Objective:
Exposure to early adversity carries long term harmful consequences for children's health and development. This study aims to 1) estimate the prevalence of childhood adversity for Australian children from infancy to 10-11 years, and 2) document inequalities in the distribution of adversity according to socioeconomic position (SEP), Indig...
This study examined how cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization influences the health of Australian adolescents (n = 2802) aged 10 to 11 years (19.3% visible ethnic minorities [nonwhite, non-Indigenous]; 2.6% Indigenous) using data from three waves (2010–2014) of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Au...
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0201696.].
This study examined the prevalence of racial/ethnic stereotypes among White adults who work or volunteer with children, and whether stereotyping of racial/ethnic groups varied towards different age groups. Participants were 1022 White adults who volunteer and/or work with children in the United States who completed a cross-sectional, online survey....
Population weighted estimates of mean levels of stereotype endorsement towards adults, by racial group, among White adults who work or volunteer with children.
(DOCX)
Population weighted estimates of mean levels of stereotype endorsement towards teens, by racial group, among White adults who work or volunteer with children.
(DOCX)
Multivariable associations between stereotype endorsement and target racial group among White adults who work or volunteer with children.
(DOCX)
Population weighted estimates of mean levels of stereotype endorsement towards adults, by racial group, among White adults who work or volunteer with children, by on and off panel.
(DOCX)
IRB Exempt Approval Letter.
(PDF)
Population weighted estimates of mean levels of stereotype endorsement towards young children, by racial group, among White adults who work or volunteer with children.
(DOCX)
Background
Disability among adolescents is associated with both poorer mental health (MH) and higher levels of bullying-victimization. Bullying, therefore, conceivably mediates the association between disability and MH. Quantifying this pathway is challenging as the exposure (disability), mediator (bullying) and outcome (MH) are subjective, and sub...
Background:
This study sought to compare the prevalence of bullying victimization between adolescents with and without a disability and between adolescents with and without borderline intellectual functioning or intellectual disability (BIF/ID). We also sought to assess whether the relationships between either disability or BIF/ID and bullying vic...
Throughout the world, groups that are socially disadvantaged have poorer health compared to groups that are more advantaged. This book examines the role that stigma and discrimination play in creating and sustaining these group health disparities. Stigma is a social construction in which people who are distinguished by a “mark” are viewed as devian...
Health and social service agencies need to be responsive to the healthcare requirements of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups in the community. This is a challenging proposition, particularly due to shifting demographics in developed Western countries such as Australia. Organisations that strive for cultural competence can potentia...
Intercultural understanding (ICU) is becoming an essential part of living and contributing effectively in our increasingly diverse society. In fact, ICU is a key capability in the Australian schooling curriculum, alongside other general capabilities such as numeracy and literacy. While there are current instruments assessing ICU, there is little ev...
A substantial amount of national and international research addresses the topic of racism but there remains a limited literature base as to how it may be experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This chapter uses LSIC data which explore parental perceptions of racism. Specific variables include the data captured by LSIC question...
Bias in favor of the in-group is a key determinant of discrimination and is thought to be largely independent of, and qualitatively distinct from, out-group hostility. One key difference, according to realistic conflict theory, is that in-group preferences become more closely associated with discrimination when intergroup threat is salient. The cur...
Objective:
To provide the first Australian population-based estimates of the association between bullying and adverse mental health outcomes and suicidality among Australian adolescents.
Method:
Analysis of data from 3537 adolescents, aged 14-15 years from Wave 6 of the K-cohort of Longitudinal Study of Australian Children was conducted. We used...
The current study presents a direct comparison of the level of association of ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility with opposition to multiculturalism policies in New Zealand. With both predictors operationalized as affect ratings of warmth and anger across separate models, ingroup favoritism and outgroup hostility were independently associate...
Background
Racism and racial discrimination are increasingly acknowledged as a critical determinant of health and health inequalities. However, patterns and impacts of racial discrimination among children and adolescents remain under-investigated, including how different experiences of racial discrimination co-occur and influence health and develop...
Objective: Australian Indigenous children experience some of the most substantial health inequalities globally. In this context, research regarding their health and well-being has overemphasised physical illnesses with limited exploration of a diverse range of dimensions and determinants, particularly those based on Indigenous holistic understandin...
Becoming culturally competent is a pressing priority for public health decision makers and decision making, if we are to ensure that strategies are delivered to maximize health equity and minimize health inequalities. Decision makers across government, nongovernment, and research sectors have commonly equated these considerations with increased nee...
Objectives:
To compare the prevalence of bullying victimization and racial discrimination by ethnicity.
Methods:
We completed a cross-sectional analysis of 3956 children aged 12 to 13 years from wave 5 (2011-2012) of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.
Results:
Bullying victimization and racial discriminati...
The study examines how white teachers talked to children about national identity and cultural diversity by drawing on qualitative research with eight- to 12-year-old students and their teachers from four Australian primary schools with different racial, ethnic and cultural demographics. Despite a range of explicit and implicit approaches that foste...
Race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) are social categories that capture differential exposure to conditions of life that have health consequences. Race/ethnicity and SES are linked to each other, but race matters for health even after SES is considered. This commentary considers the complex ways in which race combines with SES to affect he...
In 2011, Museum Victoria launched the Identity: Yours, Mine, Ours (IYMO) exhibition at the Immigration Museum in Melbourne. This major long-term exhibition targeted secondary school students as a primary audience, its key themes addressing curriculum units relating to identity, belonging and ethnicity. The exhibition’s core aims were to provide a d...
Objective:
To determine whether greater emotional and instrumental support during childhood is associated with less dysregulation across multiple physiological systems in midlife.
Methods:
Data are from participants in the second wave of the Midlife in the United States study (2004-2005) who participated in a clinic-based assessment of health st...
Este artigo resenha um crescente corpus de investigação empírica, o qual indica que o racismo, em suas variantes institucional e interpessoal, persiste nas sociedades contemporâneas racializadas de todo o mundo, e pode ter impactos adversos importantes sobre a saúde. Após um breve apanhado das desigualdades étnico-raciais na saúde da população, em...
Socioeconomic, racial/ethnic, and gender inequalities in academic achievement have been widely reported in the US, but how these three axes of inequality intersect to determine academic and non-academic outcomes among school-aged children is not well understood. Using data from the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K; N = 10,...
Despite a growing body of epidemiological evidence in recent years documenting the health impacts of racism, the cumulative evidence base has yet to be synthesized in a comprehensive meta-analysis focused specifically on racism as a determinant of health. This meta-analysis reviewed the literature focusing on the relationship between reported racis...
Discrimination is a social determinant of health; however, the pathways linking discrimination to ill-health are under-researched. This study investigated the mediators through which discrimination affects health behaviours and physical health outcomes, as well as assessed whether sex moderated these mechanisms.
Data from a representative survey (n...
Discrimination is a social determinant of health; however, the pathways linking discrimination to ill-health are under-researched. This study investigated the mediators through which discrimination affects health behaviours and physical health outcomes, as well as assessed whether sex moderated these mechanisms.
Data from a representative survey (n...
NHS organisations are now being judged on indicators of ethnic diversity. Naomi Priest and colleagues look at the international evidence on how they should tackle discrimination
For decades research has shown that discrimination, harassment, and exclusion are pervasive experiences for staff from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds in the...
Journal of Intercultural Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
The Immigration Museum Melbourne, Australia, launched the Identity: Yours, Mine, Ours exhibition in 2011. Aimed primarily at secondary school students, this long-term installation seeks to foster reflection on identity and belonging, as well as dialogue about racism, through an interactive, immersive museum experience. This paper describes a multi-...
Ethnic-racial socialisation is broadly described as processes by which both minority and majority children and young people learn about and negotiate racial, ethnic and cultural diversity. This article extends the existing ethnic-racial socialisation literature in three significant ways: (1) it explores ways children make sense of their experiences...