Cassandra Dittman

I am an Honorary Researcher with the Parenting and Family Support Centre at UQ, and a Lecturer at Central Queensland University. My research focuses on the prevention and treatment of behavioural problems in children and adolescents, with an emphasis on the impact of quality parenting on important developmental skills and outcomes, including positive development, physical activity and self-regulation. Recent research includes trials of online parenting support and brief, targeted parenting groups, alongside investigations into the parenting challenges and support needs of particular groups of parents, such as FIFO workers and parents of adolescents. Areas of current work include a partnership with the NRL to develop a new online induction program for parents of junior rugby league players to promote positive parental behaviour in the sporting context; ways to enhance the capacity of early childhood educators to promote children’s prosocial behaviour and reduce child behaviour problems; and the influence of strong parent-adolescent relationships in the positive development and mental health of young people. This latter research area includes the development of adolescent-specific measures of adolescent functioning, parenting, and the parent-adolescent relationship.

I have authored >20 publications in the area of parenting and child behaviour, and have presented or been a co-author on >30 conference presentations and invited addresses. I was awarded a UQ Early Career Researcher Award in 2013. I have an h-index of 11, and have been cited over 300 times in the past 5 years. I have also supervised 15 postgraduate research students to completion. My 2015 Masters student was awarded the APS College of Counselling Psychologists Award for Best Thesis. I am also a co-author on a new variant of Triple P, the Positive Early Childhood Education program, which uses blended modalities to train early childhood educators in behaviour modification strategies. I am also a registered psychologist with AHPRA.

Please note that I am not available for Honours or PhD supervision at the University of Queensland.