About the Research Project

In 2024 and 2025, Christian Schools Australia (CSA) collaborated with researchers from Research Schools International and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University to carry out a landmark study, entitled, Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools. The project explored the perceived levels of flourishing of adolescents (12 to 18-year-olds) and the specific practices that promote student flourishing across Christian secondary schools in Australia. This groundbreaking research study investigated and identified the conditions, contextual factors, and specific practices that can promote positive gains in student flourishing within Christian schools across Australia. Adopting a longitudinal survey design, 22,092 students in Year 7 to Year 12 across 57 Christian schools took part in one of the largest studies of adolescent flourishing in Christian schools ever undertaken.

Based upon longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of the data, the following six distinct themes emerged regarding student flourishing in Australian Christian schools:

  1. Family: The Practices of Bonding - Student flourishing and family relationships
  2. Formation: The Practices of Becoming - Student flourishing across the years of secondary school
  3. Relationships: The Practices of Belonging - Student flourishing and community
  4. Learning: The Practices of Engaging - Student flourishing and learning engagement
  5. Spirituality: The Practices of Expressing - Student flourishing and faith formation
  6. Serving: The Practices of Embodying - Student flourishing and civic and social engagement

The findings outlined in this report provide a plethora of evidence-based practices, priorities and principles for student flourishing and highlight the crucial role that Christian schools, as people forming eco-systems, can play in cultivating the fertile conditions for students to flourish holistically: intellectually, socially, physically, and spiritually.

Full Report: Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools

This report highlights evidence-based practices and principles for student flourishing, emphasising the vital role of Christian schools in nurturing holistic growth—intellectually, socially, physically, and spiritually.

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Infographic: Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools

This 4-page infographic report highlights findings on student flourishing and the implementation of practices that support flourishing. 

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New Video: Student Flourishing Research Insights from Harvard

Harvard researchers Dr Christina Hinton and Dr Breedan Case share key findings from the Student Flourishing in Australian Schools Project, offering fresh insights and practical implications for supporting adolescent flourishing.

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Project Overview

The Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools was a longitudinal study that examined the extent to which secondary students are flourishing across CSA schools. This research considered overall flourishing as well as how flourishing varies across groups. In addition, the project explored the implementation of practices associated with student flourishing, with a particular focus on Christian practices. In collaboration with the researchers from the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard and Research Schools International, we collected data at 57 CSA schools from students in Year 7 to Year 12 using online surveys on the Harvard Qualtrics platform. 

Participating students completed two surveys; one in February 2024 and another in late July / August 2024. A total of 22,092 students took part in this study, making it one of the largest studies of adolescent flourishing ever undertaken in Australian Christian schools. The available report and infographic highlight findings on student flourishing and the implementation of practices that support flourishing.

Specifically, the project explored student flourishing in Australian adolescents (12 to 18-year-olds) and the various practices associated with flourishing, with a particular focus on Christian practices in CSA member schools across Australia. The research questions for this study included: 

Student flourishing: 

  • To what degree are students flourishing across CSA schools?
  • Are there associations between individual differences (e.g., age) and family factors (e.g., religiosity of families, church attendance of families, family structure (e.g., married, single parent), socioeconomic status and flourishing and/or key aspects of flourishing (i.e., physical and mental health, close social relationships, meaning and purpose, good character and virtue, and happiness and life satisfaction) in students?

Practices, especially Christian practices, and student flourishing:

  • Which Christian practices are carried out at school that are associated with flourishing in students? 
  • Which other evidence-informed practices are associated with flourishing and/or key aspects of flourishing in students? 

Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools Project Team    

  • Dr Christina Hinton – Research Associate at the Human Flourishing Program Harvard and CEO Research Schools International
  • Dr Noah Padgett – Postdoctoral Fellow with the Human Flourishing Program Harvard
  • Dr Catherine Glennon – Director of Research Schools International
  • Dr Darren Iselin – Australian Research Project Coordinator

In addition to these key researchers, we also had Research Assistants from Dr. Christina Hinton’s team at Research Schools International and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard.

If you have any specific questions or concerns regarding the research, please contact the Australian Project Coordinator, Dr Darren Iselin.

Student Surveys

  • In this project, the research team from Research Schools International and the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard administered two online surveys to secondary school students to address the research questions above.
  • The Research Team provided a link to the surveys, which were accessed via the online survey platform Harvard Qualtrics. The surveys took participants 20 minutes to complete. They included validated measures of flourishing and related concepts as well as additional multiple-choice and short answer questions.
  • Students completed the first survey at the commencement of Semester 1, 2024 and the second survey at the commencement of Semester 2, 2024.
  • All information gathered from participants was kept confidential. While the survey responses must be kept for 7 years for legal reasons, it will be stored safely and kept securely by researchers at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard.  Only general patterns from this research will be reported in any future research publications and reports. The researchers did not ask for any names or identifying details in the survey.  
  • The ethics regarding this research was approved by Harvard/ RSI team and the Human Research Ethics Committee at Christian Research Association in Australia. 

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