Mental health disorder in children and adolescent are growing worldwide, and statistics reveal that 10% to 20 % children and adolescent are having mental health problem worldwide. Childhood has recently gained renewed focus from the researchers and policy makers as Heckman and colleagues found that childhood outcomes are strong predictors of future educational achievements and labour market success. The main concern of childhood mental disorder is that it may affect a child’s human capital accumulation by limiting the amount and quality of schooling a child received. This project will empirically investigate the determinants of mental disorders of children and probability of diagnosis and treatment of these mental disorders. Then it will explore how mental health can affect educational attainment of children and whether the relationship between mental health and educational outcomes can be explained by other risky behaviour (consumption of cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and cannabis, and skipping classes) of the children. The project can be conducted using data from either Australia or from other countries.

Students interested in pursuing a PhD (or Masters) in any of the above topics or related topics are encouraged to contact Associate Professor Rasheda Khanam (rasheda.khanam@usq.edu.au) for further details.
The potential students are expected to have:
(1) an academic background in any of these fields: economics, health economics, development economics, econometrics, statistics and public health, AND,
(2) research publications in relevant fields

Professor Rasheda Khanam

• Dr Enamul Kabir
• Professor Mafiz Rahman

• Australian Centre for Sustainable Business and Development
• Centre for Health Sciences Research
• Institute for Resilient Regions
• School of Business

• Applied Economics
• Cognitive Sciences
• Public Health and Health Services

• Doctor of Philosophy (DPHD)
• Master of Research (MRES)