Dr Fiona Arney

I am the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection at the University of South Australia. Throughout my research career I have worked in a range of areas related to the health and wellbeing of children and young people. Starting as a quantitative researcher in the field of child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing, I then moved to examining the measurement, determinants and outcomes of parenting behaviour. In 2005 I joined the newly established Australian Centre for Child Protection as a Senior Research Fellow heading the Centre’s research team. I am responsible for the Centre’s research and strategic evaluation focus area and am involved in a range of multidisciplinary projects examining the prevention, identification and response to child abuse and neglect, with a particular emphasis on the translation of research into action. My research interests include: parenting in a new culture; child and adolescent development and wellbeing; the evaluation of programs in child and family services; and supporting resilience and strengths in children, parents and families. I have also been a member of research teams at the Victorian Parenting Centre (now the Parenting Research Centre) and the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Australian Centre for Child Protection

Member of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development

Member of the South Australian Refugee Health Network

Member of Healthy Development Adelaide

Member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect

Member of the Editorial Review Board for Communities, Children and Families Australia

Member of Researchers for Asylum Seekers, coordinated by the University of Melbourne and the Australian Psychological Society.

Reviewer for a range of journals including: Children and Youth Services Review; Children Australia; Developing Practice; Australian e-Journal for the Advancement of Mental Health; Australian Psychologist; and the Australian Journal of Psychology.

PhD (Psychiatry), 2005, University of Adelaide

• For the past ten years, my research has focused on parenting and child protection research. From my PhD which examined different types of measurement of parenting behaviour and their relationships to children’s behaviour, I then moved to the evaluation of parenting programs for families in which children had an intellectual disability, and am now concentrating almost solely on child protection research.
• My current research interests include examining the spread of innovations in child and family services and the use of research in the prevention of and response to child abuse and neglect. This includes identifying research priorities for Australian research regarding child maltreatment. I am also interested in research which evaluates innovative approaches to supporting self-efficacy and resilience in vulnerable families including services for families in which a parent has a mental health problem, programs for parents who have had children removed from their care, parenting support for Aboriginal families with newborn babies, and services for newly arrived families from refugee backgrounds.
• Throughout my career I have worked across a wide variety of research topics giving me a solid research base and experience in training across a number of disciplines. Research and training topics have included: parenting and family resilience in refugee families; the measurement of parenting behaviour; evaluation of a family home visiting program with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families; research utilisation in child protection; the evaluation of a parenting toolkit for drug and alcohol workers; the effectiveness and acceptability of interventions for parents of children with intellectual difficulties (Signposts for Building Better Behaviour); evaluation of programs for families involved with child protection services; the aetiology and prevalence of children’s behaviour problems; the quality of life of children with chronic illness; the quality of life of parents of children with lysosomal storage disorders; the relationship between postnatal depression and sexual behaviour; comparisons of fitness programs suitable for middle-aged women; determinants of breastfeeding initiation and maintenance, and the use of general practitioners in the recognition and treatment of ADHD.

Lewig, K., Arney, F., Salveron, M. (in press). Challenges to parenting in a new culture: Implications for child and family welfare. Evaluation and Program Planning.

Salveron, M., Arney F., Scott D. (2006). Sowing the seeds of innovation: Ideas for child and family services. Family Matters, 73:39-45.

Miller-Lewis L., Baghurst P., Sawyer M., Prior M., Clark J., Arney F. & Carbone, J. (2006). Childhood externalising behaviour problems: Child, parenting, and family-related predictors over time. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34(6): 886-901.

Lewig, K., Arney F., Scott D. (2006). Closing the research-policy and research-practice gaps: Ideas for child and family services. Family Matters, 74:12-19.

Graetz BW, Sawyer MG, Hazell P, Arney F, Baghurst P. Validity of DSM-IV ADHD subtypes in a nationally representative sample of Australian children and adolescents, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2001) 40(12):1410-1417.

Arney F., Rogers H., Baghurst P., Sawyer M., Prior M. (2007). The reliability and validity of the Parenting Scale for Australian mothers of preschool-aged children. Australian Journal of Psychology, 60(1): 44-52.

Bromfield L. & Arney, F. (2008)."Developing a road map for research: Identifying priorities for a national child protection research agenda" Issues paper: Australian Institute of Family Studies No 28.

Salveron, M., Lewig, K., Arney, F. (2009). Parenting groups for parents whose children are in care. Child Abuse Review, (2009), 18(4): 267-288.

Arney, F., Bromfield, L., Lewig, K., Holzer, P. (2009) Integrating strategies for delivering evidence-informed practice. Evidence and Policy, 5(2), 179-191.

Daniel, B., Vincent, S., Farrall, E. & Arney, F. (accepted for publication 5th April 2009). How is the concept of resilience operationalised in practice with vulnerable children? International Journal of Child & Family Welfare

Sawyer MG, Kosky RJ, Graetz BW, Arney F, Zubrick SR, Baghurst P. The National Survey of Mental Health and Well-Being: The Child and Adolescent Component. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 34: 214-220 (2000).

Sawyer MG, Arney FM, Baghurst PA, Clark JJ, Graetz BW, Kosky RJ, Nurcombe B, Patton GC, Prior MR, Raphael B, Rey J, Whaites LC, Zubrick S. The mental health of young people in Australia: Key findings from the Child and Adolescent Component of the National Survey of Mental Health and Well-being. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry (2001) 35:806-814.

Spurrier NJ, Staugas R, Sawyer MG, Wakefield MA, Ruffin RE, Jureidini J, Arney F, Baghurst P. Health service use by children with asthma over a six month period. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. 2003 Jan-Feb;39(1):15-21.

Sawyer MG, Rey JM, Arney FM, Whitham JN, Clark JJ, Baghurst PA. Use of health and school-based services in Australia by young people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2004 Nov;43(11):1355-63.