UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic

The UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic is a research clinic set up within the UTS Graduate School of Health Discipline of Clinical Psychology. It was established in 2015 to assist parents of young children where parenting is difficult.

UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic is the research laboratory of Dr John McAloon. Its primary focus as a research and teaching clinic is to develop and translate research evidence to the benefit of parents and their children, and students engaged in clinical training. The Clinic develops diverse research projects relevant to child and family mental health that are undertaken by UTS Master of Clinical Psychology students and PhD candidates. It also accepts referrals for treatment. The primary focus of current treatment at the UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic is the Holding Hands Program, a program of preventative intervention for social, emotional and behavioural difficulties in toddlers that focuses on parental emotion regulation and dyadic relational development.

Current Projects

The UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic is currently running numerous projects. These include:

  • Self-determination and perinatal mental health care in Indigenous Communities
  • Cognitive Behavioural therapies in the context of perinatal mental health
  • Parents’ regulation of their children’s emotions during COVID-19.
  • The Holding Hands Program.
  • The Holding Hands Program for Young Parents.
  • Disordered eating in male adolescents.
  • Parental knowledge about their adolescents.
  • Acculturation and parenting.
  • Models of early intervention and parent/child outcomes
  • Camouflaging in the autism spectrum.

Publications

  • Published research from the UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic is available on Dr John McAloon's UTS page.

PhD Graduates

  • Dr Jacqueline Kemmis-Riggs - “​Improving Parent-Child Relationships for Families in the Shadow of Complex Trauma”​
  • Dr Liam Casey –“ The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and the mental Health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning people.”
  • Dr Sarah Bowman –“Assessing Gender Dysphoria”
  • Dr Nghi Bui –“Screen time and parental mental health – Implications for development in childhood”
  • Dr Andrea Papaloizou –“ Children’s development as a function of early care arrangements”​
  

Current PhD Students 

  • Dr Rachael Murrihy - Parent Management Training and Collaborative & Proactive Solutions: A randomized comparison trial for oppositional youth within an Australian population.
  • Shauna Byrne - “Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders: Factors of influence in adolescent males”.
  • Anna Dedousis-Wallace - “An investigation of the moderators and mediators influencing children and adolescents with Oppositional Defiant Disorder”
  • Kim Beadman – “The provision of Perinatal Mental Health Services in an Australian Aboriginal Community” 
  • Neeraja Shankar –“An Investigation of the Impact of Culture on Parenting Practices and the Clinical Implications for Parenting Programs and Child Outcomes”​
  

 

John is available to discuss both Master’s and PhD research projects.
Please contact the UTS: Family Child Behaviour Clinic by email at: familychildbehaviour@uts.edu.au

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.