Dr RoseAnne Misajon - Researcher Profile

RoseAnne Misajon

Address

School of Political & Social Inquiry
Faculty of Arts, Clayton

Biography

Assessing the wellbeing of our neighbourhoods

The health of Australian communities has long been judged on objective tests of crime rates, employment, wealth and infrastructure. However, Dr RoseAnne Misajon believes there is far more to our neighbourhoods than can be measured by counting schools or public transport options.

 

RoseAnne is interested in our subjective experience of community. The everyday Australians she speaks to during her research are asked how much they trust their neighbours, how often they get involved in community events and the diversity of their social circle.

They are the kind of questions that offer a greater insight into Australian society and to the subjective wellbeing of Australians in general.

"Two people can have the same objective health, but their subjective experience can differ remarkably," RoseAnne says.

"Yes, the objective part is important, but when it comes down to it we need to also understand if it makes them happy or not. And if not, then what else is going on? That is really important to understanding how we can improve people’s quality of life."

RoseAnne has been involved in teams that have developed and validated various instruments measuring quality of life. These include the VisQoL, which measures the quality of life of people with a vision impairment, and the Personal Well-Being Index (PWI) that is currently available in 19 different languages, in operation in many different countries, and is among the tools used by Community Indicators Victoria to guide planning and action. 

Her current work with Monash focuses on volunteering, especially among migrant and non-English speaking populations.

Volunteering is seen as a possible indicator of social wellbeing within a community, and Australians have long prided themselves on their volunteering ethic. However, recent census data shows volunteering rates are lower among non-English speakers.

RoseAnne is about to conduct a pilot study into the reasons behind the apparent point of difference.

"I am interested in volunteering as an indicator of the impact of community diversity," she says.

"Our hope is to look at it objectively, and understand why these patterns are happening. For instance, does it change with generations? Is it largely a language barrier? Perhaps it is a problem with the definition of volunteering, or perhaps people are volunteering within their specific ethnic group.

"What we are doing is trying to understand behaviour. Hopefully we can provide this information to policy makers, so if one of their aims is to increase volunteering among migrant populations, they can understand the various barriers and address them from the start."

RoseAnne has carried the desire to challenge dominant definitions and stereotypes into her private life.

As the executive producer of the award-winning Filipino-Australian community television show "Pinoy TV", she is actively trying to build links between communities. The show is presented in English, and is intended as a window into the Filipino-Australian community for the wider society to look through.

"We wanted to challenge existing stereotypes regarding Filipinos and celebrate the diversity within the Filipino-Australian community," she says.

"It happens all the time, when we look at groups that are in some way different to ourselves, we see them as much more homogenous than our own group. So we wanted to show the diversity within this group."

 

Qualifications

PHD
Institution: Deakin University / Burwood
Year awarded: 2002
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 1997
BACHELOR OF ARTS
Institution: Monash University
Year awarded: 1997

Publications

Book Chapters

Warren, N.L., Manderson, L.H., Misajon, R., 2009, More than SF-36? Using narratives to elaborate health and well-being data in recent lower-limb amputees, in Quality of Life and the Millennium Challenge: Advances in Quality-of-Life Studies, Theory and Research, eds Valerie Moller and Denis Huschka, Springer, Netherlands, pp. 59-80.

Journal Articles

Hutton, V., Misajon, R., Collins, F.E., 2012, Subjective wellbeing and 'felt' stigma when living with HIV, Quality of Life Research [E], vol 0, Springer Netherlands, Netherlands, pp. 1-9.

Richardson, J.R.J., Iezzi, A.A., Peacock, S.J., Sinha, K., Khan, M.A., Misajon, R., Keeffe, J., 2012, Utility weights for the vision-related assessment of quality of life (AQoL)-7D instrument, Ophthalmic Epidemiology [P], vol 19, issue 3, Informa Healthcare, London UK, pp. 172-182.

Pallant, J., Keenan, A., Misajon, R., Conaghan, P., Tennant, A., 2009, Measuring the impact and distress of osteoarthritis from the patients' perspective, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes [P], vol 7, BioMed Central Ltd, UK, pp. 1-8.

Ramp, M., Khan, F., Misajon, R., Pallant, J., 2009, Rasch analysis of the Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29), Health and Quality of Life Outcomes [P], vol 7, BioMed Central Ltd, UK, pp. 1-10.

Misajon, R., Pallant, J.F., Manderson, L.H., Chirawatkul, S., 2008, Measuring the impact of health problems among adults with limited mobility in Thailand: Further validation of the Perceived Impact of Problem Profile, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, vol 6, issue 6, BioMed Central Open Access, EPub, pp. 1-8.

Misajon, R., Khoo, T.-.L., 2008, Pinoy TV: Imagining the Filipino-Australian community, Journal of Australian Studies, vol 32, issue 4, Routledge, UK, pp. 455-466.

Peacock, S.J., Misajon, R., Iezzi, A.A., Richardson, J.R.J., Hawthorne, G., Keeffe, J., 2008, Vision and quality of life: Development of methods for the VisQoL vision-related utility instrument, Ophthalmic Epidemiology, vol 15, issue 4, Informa Healthcare, UK, pp. 218-223.

Misajon, R., Manderson, L.H., Pallant, J.F., Omar, Z., Bennett, E., Rahim, R.A., 2006, Impact, distress and HRQoL among Malaysian men and women with a mobility impairment, Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, vol 4, issue 95, BioMed Central Ltd, UK, pp. 1-10.

Pallant, J.F., Misajon, R., Bennett, E., Manderson, L.H., 2006, Measuring the impact and distress of health problems from the individual's perspective: development of the perceived impact of problem profile (PIPP), Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, vol 4, issue 36, BioMed Central Ltd, UK, pp. 1-13.

Misajon, R., Hawthorne, G., Richardson, J.R.J., Barton, J., Peacock, S.J., Iezzi, A.A., Keeffe, J., 2005, Vision and quality of life: the development of a utility measure, Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science (IOVS), vol 46, issue 11, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, USA, pp. 4007-4015.

Cummins, R.A., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., van Vugt, J., Misajon, R., 2003, Developing a national index of subjective wellbeing: the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index, Social Indicators Research, vol 64, issue 2, Springer, Dordrecht The Netherlands, pp. 159-190.

Chou, S., Misajon, R., Gallo, J., Keeffe, J., 2003, Measurement of indirect costs for people with vision impairment, Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology, vol 31, issue 4, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford England, pp. 336-340.

Germano, D., Misajon, R., Cummins, R.A., 2001, Quality of life and sense of coherence in people with arthritis, Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, vol 8, issue 4, Springer/Plenun, New York USA, pp. 253-261.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Islam: the religious identity of married Turkish women in Melbourne.
Supervisors:
Arunachalam, D (Joint-co), Misajon, R (Joint).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Living with HIV in developed nations: Subjective wellbeing and the human-animal bond.
Supervisors:
Misajon, R (Main), Collins, F (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
The future of friendship: contextualising friendship and social networking in the digital age.
Supervisors:
Misajon, R (Main), Davis, M (Associate), Collins, F (Associate).
Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Young Greek women and diasporic lives: Ethnicity and a life of choice..
Supervisors:
Arunachalam, D (Main), Misajon, R (Associate).