Wellbeing Ways: Study Protocol for Assessing and Supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students' Wellbeing in Queensland Secondary Schools

BackgroundAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth belong to culturally rich and resilient communities, yet they continue to experience significant health and wellbeing disparities. Despite these challenges, there is a critical gap in culturally appropriate tools to assess and support the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in school settings. The Wellbeing Ways project addresses this gap by working with secondary schools to implement What Matters 2Youth (WM2Y), a newly developed, strengths-based wellbeing measure grounded in the perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth (aged 12-17 years), and co-designing place-based supports. MethodsWellbeing Ways is a three-year project being conducted in partnership with four diverse Queensland secondary schools. The project employs a four-phase mixed methods design guided by co-design principles and the i-PARiHS implementation framework. Phase 1 involves pre-implementation yarning workshops to co-design culturally safe implementation strategies; Phase 2 delivers longitudinal administration of WM2Y; Phase 3 conducts a post-implementation evaluation; and Phase 4 involves co-designing place-based wellbeing resources and referral pathways with students, staff, Elders, and service providers, informed by WM2Y data and community priorities. Ethics and DisseminationEthics approvals have been obtained from relevant Human Research Ethics Committees. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications, community presentations, and policy briefs, ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are primary audiences for all outputs.