Steve Zubrick - Head, Division of Population Sciences

 

 

Professor Steve Zubrick has a passion for growing up children into healthy adults and for the last three decades, he has made it his life’s work to find out the best ways to do this.
“I want to develop a more comprehensive picture of the pathways that lead from conception to adulthood and that focus upon the ability, at each stage of the life course, for the developing person to be able to optimally participate – socially, economically, and civically,” explains Steve.
Steve completed his doctoral and postdoctoral work in psychology at the University of Michigan.  Before joining the Institute in a part-time capacity in 1991, Steve worked in Western Australian hospital and outpatient mental health settings for many years.
“My clinical work in the mental health field in WA really opened my eyes to the challenges that some members of our society face during childhood that can have lasting influences as adults,” says Steve.
Steve became a full-time Institute staff member in 1997 and he currently heads the Division of Population Sciences, overseeing the research teams that study the social, economic and psychological determinants of human development.  He cites his involvement in the initial creation and findings from the Western Australian Child Health Survey, closely followed by the creation and findings from the Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey, as two of his career highlights.
“The amount of hard work that went into these two studies and the commitment of the staff and families involved was enormous, but the success of both of the studies and the fact that they are today being used to drive policy and planning of health services around the state, and indeed the country, make it an extremely satisfying and worthwhile experience.”
Along with his role at the Institute, Steve also holds a position in Curtin’s Centre for Developmental Health.  However, in each role he holds, Steve sees one of his most important tasks as developing the skills and knowledge of his researchers.
“I’m certainly passionate about building good teams and I believe that teaching the next generation of research leaders is the key to continuing the great work that we have started here, and hopefully making significant changes to the lives of people,” says Steve.
Steve has a reputation as one of Australia’s leading authorities in the epidemiology of child and adolescent mental health and as such, his knowledge and skills in this area are highly sought after.  In 2002, he was asked to chair the Consortium Advisory Group that provides advice to the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC).  This study is following 10,000 Australian children over a seven-year period, looking at a range of outcomes including behavioural and emotional adjustment, language and cognitive development, readiness to learn, overall health, physical development and social competence.
“The LSAC adopts a holistic approach to child development, being concerned with outcomes across multiple domains of development, which parallels the work we are doing here at the Institute,” explains Steve.
Through Steve’s knowledge of LSAC, he has appeared in the ‘Life’ documentaries which aired on ABC TV.  The series follows a dozen children from birth and explains stages in their growth and development using the sociological and scientific data collected from the LSAC study children.
“I really enjoyed participating in the Life program as it was great to see our research being beamed straight into the loungerooms of the families that will hopefully benefit from it most,” he says.
Although Steve has contributed significantly to the knowledge base of the healthy development of Australian kids, he believes there is still much more he has to achieve.
“I’d like to establish better forecasting and modelling of human development outcomes at a population level in Australia.  We need a better capacity to predict consequences of decisions in health, education and employment and training and communicate these consequences in a more relevant way,” he says.
“My ultimate goal is to see the translation of our psychological and social research findings into relevant and timely policies and actions on the part of governments and private agencies - to use these studies in a way to positively influence the lives of children and young people in Australia and abroad,” says Steve.
When not wearing his research hat, Steve can be found sailing his boat on the gentle waters of the Swan River with his family and good friends.  His other passions in life include walking, reading and listening to music.