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The parent empowerment scale: development and psychometric properties

Parents of trans and gender diverse (herein ‘trans’) children experience additional challenges in their parenting role relative to parents of cisgender children. Understanding and enhancing parents’ empowerment is a promising approach to support both parents and children. We aimed to develop an empowerment scale specific to parents of trans children, grounded in parents’ lived experiences. 

An Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parenting program

The aim of this project is to develop and implement a culturally safe, responsive and trauma-informed parenting program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families.

Co-designing a trauma-informed program for parents whose infant has had a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) admission

Having a newborn child admitted into a NICU can be highly traumatic for parents. The compounding effects of the NICU clinical environment, having a seriously ill child, in addition to the inability to care or adequately bond with your child can be extremely distressing.

Tanika Sgherza

Senior Research Officer Tanika Sgherza is on the Healing Kids, Healing Families team.

Wellbeing and Type 1 Diabetes

A community-led, trauma-informed psychosocial intervention to improve health outcomes of children and young people with Type-1 diabetes.

A Single-Armed Pilot Study to Evaluate a Psychosocial Intervention for Young People Who Have Experienced a Burn Injury: The Wellbeing Study

Children with serious burns often suffer psychosocial consequences. This study evaluated the pilot of a 6-session psychoeducational intervention newly designed to support the wellbeing of children who experienced burns.

The presentation of dissociative symptoms in childhood and early adolescence: A systematic review and thematic synthesis of 30 case studies

Dissociative disorders in children and young adolescents are under-recognised and under-treated. Current diagnostic criteria rely on downward extensions of adult models and do not adequately consider developmental differences in younger populations. This reliance risks overlooking symptom patterns that may be unique in childhood, thereby perpetuating diagnostic gaps and delayed treatment. 

Clinicians’ experience with trauma-related dissociation in CAMHS: A reflexive thematic analysis

This study examined how mental health clinicians conceptualise, assess, and treat dissociation in children and adolescents, and examined their confidence in working with these presentations to inform clinical practice. 

Comparing education with and without indirect contact to reduce stigma towards youth at-risk for psychosis

Stigma towards individuals with mental health concerns is a global issue, including among young people at ultra-high risk (UHR) for psychosis. This study compared two written anti-stigma resources: (a) Education and (b) Lived Experience + Education, among young adults and parents/caregivers.

Psychometric evaluation of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory in autistic and non-autistic adults

Measures of autistic traits are only useful – for pre-diagnostic screening, exploring individual differences, and gaining personal insight – if they efficiently and accurately assess autism as currently conceptualised while maintaining psychometric validity across different demographic groups. We recruited 1322 autistic and 1279 non-autistic adults who varied in autism status (non-autistic, diagnosed autistic, self-identifying autistic) and gender (cisgender men, cisgender women, gender diverse) to assess the psychometric properties of the Comprehensive Autistic Trait Inventory, a recently developed measure of autistic traits that examines six trait domains using 42 self-report statements.