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Education for Family Life in Australia

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Global Perspectives on Family Life Education

Abstract

Family life education is neither a formal discipline nor a formally recognized vocation in Australia. Rather, it comprises a loose amalgam of programs, services, and policies—with little reliable evaluation data to guide its activities. Education for family life in Australia has a complex disjointed story, characterized by a marked decline in couple relationship education, on the one hand, and an expansion of parenting education on the other. Our central argument is that supporting and enriching couple relationships is critical to successful parenting. Yet Australian policy—possibly reflecting broader cultural and attitudinal barriers—appears to neglect this important nexus.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Australian Research Council (Future Fellowship FT110100757 to Smyth); Nicholas Biddle for the analysis of recent census data; Giverney Ainscough for valuable research assistance along the way; and Denise Lacey, Lawrie Moloney, Elizabeth van Acker, Joanne Commerford, the editors, Mihaela Robila and Alan Taylor, and an anonymous reviewer for comments on an early draft. Any shortcomings or errors, of course, are ours alone, as are the views expressed in this chapter. These views should not be attributed to any affiliated organizations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Social Research and Methods, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Bruce M. Smyth

  2. Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Cathryn Hunter

  3. Parenting Research Centre/Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Michelle Macvean

  4. Aboriginal Research and Leadership, University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia

    Maggie Walter

  5. Institute of Child Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Daryl J. Higgins

Authors
  1. Bruce M. Smyth
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  2. Cathryn Hunter
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  3. Michelle Macvean
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  4. Maggie Walter
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  5. Daryl J. Higgins
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bruce M. Smyth .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queens College, CUNY, Queens, New York, USA

    Mihaela Robila

  2. East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA

    Alan C. Taylor

Appendix

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Table 1 Rating scheme for rapid evidence assessment of Australian evaluations of parenting programs
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Smyth, B.M., Hunter, C., Macvean, M., Walter, M., Higgins, D.J. (2018). Education for Family Life in Australia. In: Robila, M., Taylor, A. (eds) Global Perspectives on Family Life Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77589-0_7

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