Contacts
I’m a Senior Lecturer in the School of Medicine and Psychology, ANU. After graduating with a Master of Clinical Psychology and PhD from The University of New South Wales, Sydney, I completed postdoctoral fellowships at Florida International University, USA and Simon Fraser University, Canada. I have been registered as a Psychologist (endorsement in Clinical Psychology) since 2011, and have practiced in various community and university settings.
At the heart of my research is a desire to improve mental health and wellbeing in children, young people and their families. To this end, a major aspect of my current work focuses on implementing and evaluating parent interventions in partnership with Government and community organisations in the child welfare sector.
As Director of the ANU Child Wellbeing Research Group, I also collaborate with my students on research concerning attachment relationships, child mental health, child maltreatment and trauma, family violence (eg, coercive control), and risk and resilience in out-of-home care.
Our projects are currently funded by the Australian Research Council, Australian Rotary Health and Relationships Australia.
Research interests
- Parent intervention to strengthen child and youth mental health
- Child maltreatment and trauma
- Out-of-home care
- Caregiver-child attachment relationship
- Child and youth antisocial behaviour and callous-unemotional traits (e.g., lack of guilt and empathy)
External Grants
2023 - 2026: Australian Research Council Linkage Project. Title: Promoting child and carer wellbeing and placement stability in kinship care. Amount: AU$319,981. Role: Principal Investigator.
2023: Australian Rotary Health Mental Health Research Grant. Title: Improving child mental health in foster care: A pilot randomised trial of an attachment- and trauma-informed intervention. Amount: AU$52,775. Role: Principal Investigator.
2020 - 2021: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Operating Grant: COVID-19 Mental Health & Substance Use Service Needs and Delivery. Title: Reducing risk and promoting health among vulnerable teens and their families in the context of COVID-19: A multisite national and international implementation and evaluation study. Amount: CA$199,625. Lead-PI: Marlene M. Moretti. Role: Co-Principal Investigator.
2020: NSW Department of Communities and Justice Targeted Call for Research – Out-of-Home Care. Title: Patterns of family contact for children in care: How can we better support birth family relationships for children over time? Amount: $30,000. Lead-PI: Aino Suomi. Role: Co-Principal Investigator.
2017 - 2020: Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Title: Strengthening parent-child relationships to promote child adjustment. Amount: AU$375,000. Role: Principal Investigator.
2014 - 2017: National Institute of Mental Health (R34 MH100279). Title: Parent training and emotion coaching for children with limited prosocial emotions. Amount: US$656,474. Multiple-PIs: Lynn F. Katz & Robert J. McMahon. Role: Co-Investigator
2013 - 2015: Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, BC, Canada. Title: A preventive parenting program for family reunification. Amount: CA$124,500. Role: Principal Investigator.
2013: Child & Family Research Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (funding declined in favour of the MSFHR fellowship), Child & Family Research Institute, Vancouver, Canada. Title: A preventive parenting program for family reunification. Amount: CA$79,000 (2-year term). Role: Principal Investigator.
Groups
- Leader, Child Wellbeing Research Group
Projects
- Principal investigator, Connecting Kin Research Project: Evaluation of a Trauma- and Attachment-Based Support Program for Kinship Parents
- Supervisor, A systematic review of the effectiveness of attachment-based and emotion-focused parenting interventions for reducing externalising and internalising behaviours
- Supervisor, Affective quality of the kinship parent-child relationship and child behavioural and emotional adjustment
- Supervisor, Assessing adolescents’ perspectives of the quality of the parent-teen relationship
- Supervisor, Seeking Practitioners to Provide their Opinions on Timeout!
Book Chapters
Moretti, M. M., Pasalich, D. S., & O’Donnell, K. A. (2022). El desafío de la adolescencia desde una perspectiva de apego [The challenge of adolescence from an attachment perspective]. In M. Marrone, & E. Wolfberg (Eds.), Parentidad y teoria del aprego, (Volumen II): Difficultades de la parentalidad. Formas de intervencion. Libros Premisa.
Pasalich, D. S., & Palfrey, N. (2021). Working with families of children who have experienced maltreatment. In J. L. Allen, D. J. Hawes, & C. A. Essau (Eds.), Family-based intervention for child and adolescent mental health: A core competencies approach (pp. 242–257). Cambridge University Press.
McMahon, R. J., & Pasalich, D. S. (2020). Evidence-based interventions for oppositional behavior and other conduct problems in young children. In R. G. Steele and M. C. Roberts (Eds.), Handbook of evidence-based therapies for children and adolescents (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.
McMahon, R. J., & Pasalich, D. S. (2018). Parenting and family intervention in treatment. In M. Sanders & A. Morawska (Eds.), Handbook of parenting and child development across the lifespan (pp. 745-773). New York: Springer.
Moretti, M. M., Pasalich, D. S., & O’Donnell, K. A. (2018). An attachment-based program for parents of teens. In H. Steele & M. Steele (Eds.), Handbook of attachment-based interventions (pp. 375-400). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
McMahon, R. J., & Pasalich, D.S. (2016). Family-based interventions for young children with conduct problems as a means of delinquency prevention. In D.J. Pepler, J. Cummings, & W.M. Craig (Eds.), Healthy development, healthy communities (pp. 145-166) (PREVNet Series, Volume IV). Kingston, ON: PREVNet.
Kimonis, E. R., Pardini, D. A., Pasalich, D. S., & McMahon, R. J. (2014). Callous and unemotional specifier for conduct disorder. In G. Gabbard (Ed.), Gabbard's treatments of psychiatric disorders (5th ed., pp. 747-754). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
Pardini, D. A., Pasalich, D. S., Kimonis, E. R., & McMahon, R. J. (2014). Conduct disorder. In G. Gabbard (Ed.), Gabbard's treatments of psychiatric disorders (5th ed., pp. 739-746). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
Pasalich D. S., McMahon, R. J., Kimonis, E. R., & Pardini, D. A. (2014). Oppositional defiant disorder. In G. Gabbard (Ed.), Gabbard's treatments of psychiatric disorders (5th ed., pp. 725-731). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc.
Hawes, D. J., Dadds, M. R., & Pasalich, D. S. (2013). Observational coding methods. In R. Comer & P. Kendall (Eds.), Oxford handbook of research strategies for clinical psychology (pp. 120-141). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Journal Articles (*students under my primary supervision at time of publication)
Suomi, A., Bolton, A., & Pasalich, D. (2023). The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in birth parents in child protection services: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 24(2), 1032-1046.
Suomi, A., Lucas, N., Pasalich, D., & McArthur, M. (2023). Contact with mothers for children in out-of-home-care: Group-based trajectory modelling from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS). Child Abuse & Neglect, 106199.
Jugovac*, S., O’Kearney, R., Hawes, D. J., & Pasalich, D. S. (2022). Attachment-and emotion-focused parenting interventions for child and adolescent externalizing and internalizing behaviors: A meta-analysis. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review.
McKenna*, S., Olsen, A., & Pasalich, D. S. (2022). Understanding strengths in adolescent–parent relationships: A qualitative analysis of adolescent speech samples. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 32(3), 1228-1245.
Pasalich, D. S., Craig, S. G., Goulter, N., O’Donnell, K. A., Sierra Hernandez, C., & Moretti, M. M. (2022). Patterns and predictors of different youth responses to attachment-based parent intervention. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 51(5), 796-809.
Truong, M., Sharif, M., Olsen, A., Pasalich, D., Calabria, B., & Priest, N. (2022). Attitudes and beliefs about family and domestic violence in faith‐based communities: An exploratory qualitative study. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 57(4), 880-897.
Xyrakis*, N., Aquilina*, B., McNiece, E., Tran, T., Waddell, C., Suomi, A. & Pasalich, D. (2022). Interparental coercive control and child and family outcomes: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse.
Bui*, N. H., & Pasalich, D. S. (2021). Insecure attachment, maladaptive personality traits, and the perpetration of in-person and cyber psychological abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36, 2117-2139.
Canning*, M. G., Jugovac*, S., & Pasalich, D. S. (2021). An updated account on parents’ use of and attitudes towards time-out. Child Psychiatry & Human Development.
Chia*, K., Pasalich, D. S., Fassnacht, D. B., Ali, K., Kyrios, M., Maclean, B., & Grisham, J. R. (2021). Interpersonal attachment, early family environment, and trauma in hoarding: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 90, 102096.
Hassall*, A., van Rensburg*, E. J., Trew, S., Hawes, D. J., & Pasalich, D. S. (2021). Does kinship vs. foster care better promote connectedness? A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 24(4), 813-832.
Pasalich, D. S., Moretti, M. M., Hassall*, A., & Curcio, A. (2021). Pilot randomized controlled trial of an attachment- and trauma-focused intervention for kinship caregivers. Child Abuse & Neglect, 120, 105178.
Goulter, N., McMahon, R. J., Pasalich, D. S., & Dodge, K. A. (2020). Indirect effects of early parenting on adult antisocial outcomes via adolescent conduct disorder symptoms and callous-unemotional traits. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 49, 930-942.
McKenna*, S., Hassall*, A., O'Kearney, R., & Pasalich, D. S. (2020). Gaining a new perspective on the quality of parent–adolescent relationships from adolescent speech samples. Journal of Family Psychology, 34, 938-948.
Pasalich, D. S., Fleming, C. B., Spieker, S. J., Lohr, M. J., & Oxford, M. L. (2019). Does parents’ own history of child abuse moderate the effectiveness of the Promoting First Relationships® intervention in child welfare? Child Maltreatment, 24(1), 56-65.
Schuberth, D. A., Zheng, Y., Pasalich, D. S., McMahon, R. J., Kamboukos, D., Dawson-McClure, S., & Miller Brotman, L. (2019). The role of emotion understanding in the development of aggression and callous-unemotional features across early childhood. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47, 619-631.
Weston, S., Hawes, D. J., & Pasalich, D. S. (2017). The Five Minute Speech Sample as a measure of parent-child dynamics: Evidence from observational research. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 118-136.
Zheng, Y., Pasalich, D. S., Oberth, C., McMahon, R. J., & Pinderhughes, E. E. (2017). Capturing parenting as a multidimensional and dynamic construct with a person-oriented approach. Prevention Science, 18, 281-291.
Dadds, M. R., Gale, N., Godbee, M., Moul, C., Pasalich, D. S., Fink, E., & Hawes, D. J. (2016). Expression and regulation of attachment-related emotions in children with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 47, 647-656.
Pasalich, D. S., Cyr, M., Zheng, Y., McMahon, R. J., & Spieker, S. J. (2016). Child abuse history in teen mothers and parent-child risk processes for offspring externalizing problems. Child Abuse & Neglect, 56, 89-98.
Pasalich, D. S., Fleming, C. B., Oxford, M. L., Zheng, Y., & Spieker, S. J. (2016). Can parenting intervention prevent cascading effects from placement instability to insecure attachment to externalizing problems in maltreated toddlers? Child Maltreatment, 21, 175-185.
Pasalich, D. S., Witkiewitz, K., McMahon, R. J., Pinderhughes, E. E., & the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2016). Indirect effects of the Fast Track intervention on conduct disorder symptoms and callous-unemotional traits: Distinct pathways involving discipline and warmth. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44, 587-597.
Boustani, M. M., Frazier, S. L., Becker, K. D., Bechor, M., Dinizulu, S. M., Hedemann, E. R., Ogle, R. R., & Pasalich, D. S. (2015). Common elements of adolescent prevention programs: Minimizing burden while maximizing reach. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42, 209-219.
Graziano, P., Bagner, D., Slavec, J., Rodriguez, G., Kent, K., Babinski, D., Derefinko, K., & Pasalich, D. (2015). Feasibility of providing Intensive Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (I-PCIT): Results from an open trial. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 37, 38-49.
Cyr, M., Pasalich, D. S., McMahon, R. J., & Spieker, S. J. (2014). The longitudinal link between parenting and child aggression: The moderating effect of attachment security. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 45, 555-564.
Miller, N. V., Johnston, C., & Pasalich, D. S. (2014). Parenting and conduct problems: Moderation by child empathy. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 36, 74-83.
Pasalich, D. S., Dadds, M. R., & Hawes, D. J. (2014). Cognitive and affective empathy in children with conduct problems: Additive and interactive effects of callous-unemotional traits and autism spectrum disorders symptoms. Psychiatry Research, 219, 625-630.
Pasalich, D. S., Waschbusch, D. A., Dadds, M. R., & Hawes, D. J. (2014). Emotion socialization style in parents of children with callous–unemotional traits. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 45, 229-242.
Pasalich, D. S., Dadds, M. R., Hawes, D. J., & Brennan, J. (2012). Attachment and callous-unemotional traits in children with early-onset conduct problems. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 53, 838-845.
Pasalich, D. S., Dadds, M. R., Vincent, L. C., Cooper, F. A., Hawes, D. J., & Brennan, J. (2012). Emotional communication in families of conduct-problem children with high versus low callous-unemotional traits. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 41, 302-313.
Dadds, M. R., Jambrak, J., Pasalich, D. S., Hawes, D. J., & Brennan, J. (2011). Impaired attention to the eyes of attachment figures and the developmental origins of psychopathy. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 238-245.
Pasalich, D. S., Dadds, M. R., Hawes, D. J., & Brennan, J. (2011). Do callous-unemotional traits moderate the relative importance of parental coercion versus warmth in child conduct problems? An observational study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52, 1308-1315.
Pasalich, D. S., Dadds, M. R., Hawes, D. J., & Brennan, J. (2011). Assessing relational schemas in parents of children with externalizing behavior disorders: Reliability and validity of the Family Affective Attitude Rating Scale. Psychiatry Research, 185, 438-443.
Pasalich, D. S., Livesey, D. J., & Livesey, E. J. (2010). Performance on Stroop-like assessments of inhibitory control by 4- and 5-year-old children. Infant and Child Development, 19, 252-263.
- PSYC8102 Child Psychopathology & Intervention
- PSYC8410 Foundations of Professional Psychology
