Thom Nevill
Research officer
BA(Hons), PhD
thom.nevill@thekids.org.au
Thom is a research officer in the School and Community Wellbeing team at The Kids Research Institute Australia. His primary focus is on researching and evaluating programs aimed at fathers (and father figures), with the goal of promoting positive paternal involvement in their children's lives.
His Ph.D. research centered on the experiences of dyslexic secondary students and their parents living in Western Australia. He has a wide range of research interests, including parenting, disability, education policy, and equity.
Thom also has a keen interest in a variety of qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews, ethnography, focus groups, and interpretative policy analysis.
Thom is the recipient of the Dr Teck Jin Lian Memorial Prize in Education.
Projects
NICU Dads
Co-design of a program supporting paternal involvement in preterm care.
January 2025
Published research
What I Wish I Had Known: Examining Parent Accounts of Managing the Health of Their Child With Intellectual Disability
Appropriate support for the health of children with an intellectual disability by parents and healthcare professionals is pivotal, given the high risk of chronic conditions. However, there is limited research that has collected important insights from parents on their learnings for supporting their child's evolving healthcare needs.
Perspectives on the essential skills of healthcare decision making in children and adolescents with intellectual disability
Involvement in healthcare decisions is associated with better health outcomes for patients. For children and adolescents with intellectual disability, parents and healthcare professionals need to balance listening to a child's wishes with the responsibility of keeping them safe.
Education and Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology and Education) – University of Western Australia
- Bachelor of Arts (Hons 1A) – University of Western Australia
Awards/Honours
- 2018 - The Australian Sociological Association Honours Award Recipient, Western Australia
- 2018 - University of Western Australian Certificate of Excellence in Anthropology and Sociology, Western Australia
- 2018 – University of Western Australia Certificate of Excellence in Indigenous Knowledge, History, and Heritage, Western Australia