Matthew Sanders

Professor Sanders’ body of work with Triple P has grown to represent one of the world’s most extensively evaluated, strongly supported and widely implemented system of parenting intervention. Triple P produces empirically supported, beneficial effects across multiple indices of child, parent and family functioning, across cultures, socioeconomic groups, and age groups from toddlers to teenagers. Triple P, uniquely, is the only parenting intervention to have demonstrated population level effects on child maltreatment.

Prof Sanders has established a globally recognised leading centre for research on children and families. The PFSC is among the most well connected global research centres at UQ. The PFSC has linkages with researchers and institutions across Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT: Professor Sanders’ research on parenting has made a significant academic and social impact internationally. He is considered a world leader in the development, implementation and evaluation and dissemination of population based approached to the delivery of parenting and family interventions and has developed the first evidence based population level based approach to parenting to improve the mental health and well-being of children.

INNOVATION: Prof. Sanders has overseen the development of a range of specialty programs to cater for specific areas of need, including parents of children with a disability or chronic illness, parents going through divorce or separation, first-time parents, Indigenous parents, grandparents, and parents of children who are overweight or obese. These developments have led to dramatic improvements for the lives of children, their families and the communities they inhabit.

Today, over 1200 different researchers from 375 different institutions in 33 countries have conducted Triple P studies including over 305 evaluations. Triple P is now available in 35 countries, translated into 2 languages, with over 78,000 practitioners having delivered the intervention to families of over 7 million children.

CITATIONS: Prof Sanders’ has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles, 28 books, & 69 book chapters. He has an h-Index of 78 (Google Scholar Oct, 2018) & has been cited 24,000+ times. Prof. Sanders’ unique multilevel system of intervention has been subjected to intensive scientific scrutiny with 155 RCT’s and 7 meta analyses, published in field-leading journals such as the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Clinical Psychology Review, Behavior Therapy, and Prevention Science.

Internationally, Professor Sanders is the most productive author in the specific topic areas of “parenting” & “evidence-based parenting programs”, & the third most productive in “parent training” for articles & reviews in the periods of 1965-2018 and the last 5 years (SciVal Oct 2018; InCites Oct 2018). He is the second most productive in “parent training” for aricles & reviews in the period 1980-2018. UQ accounts for 6% of the global publication output in the competency area of parenting & children, of which PFSC researchers are the most published UQ authors.

In line with the University of Queensland’s mission to make science knowledge accessible, Professor Sanders is actively involved in the community and appears regularly on various television and radio programs and regularly deliver presentations and facilitate workshops dealing with parenting and children’s behaviour. He also acts as a media spokesperson for the Australian Psychological Society on child and family issues.