About 180 parenting experts from around the world will meet at The University of Queensland on Thursday and Friday for the sixth annual Helping Families Change Conference.
Conference co-organiser Professor Matt Sanders, a UQ psychology and parenting expert, said the speakers would reveal the latest developments in child and family welfare, childhood obesity and family and parenting methods.
Some of these include the results of a Canadian parenting study and the success of UQ’s own Triple P — Positive Parenting Program in the United States, Japan and Australia.
Triple P was developed over 25 years by Professor Sanders’ UQ team to strengthen families and is being used in 14 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Professor Sanders said widespread parenting problems were a major public health risk but parenting programs could help.
“The single most important thing we can do as a community to prevent children developing serious behavioural, emotional and learning problems is to assist parents in the important role of raising children,” Professor Sanders said.
“A lot of parents are not coping with their kids and are worried about them but relatively few are doing parenting programs.”
He wants Triple P to be accessible to every family in Australia and the stigma taken out of receiving parenting help.
“We’re saying that using proven and tested parenting strategies should be like taking driving lessons, widely available and everybody does them.”
Federal Labor leader Kim Beazley has vowed to rollout Triple P nationally if elected but Professor Sanders is also seeking Coalition support.
Other conference highlights include an address by University of North Carolina health economist Professor Michael Foster at 10am on Friday.
Professor Foster will talk about the costs and quality of parenting programs and why consumers and health care providers don’t demand high-quality care.
There will also be presentations about the health of indigenous children in Western Australia and other areas in Australia, postpartum depression and parenting children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
University of South Carolina Professor Ron Prinz will talk at 10am on Thursday about whether parenting
interventions reduce child maltreatment.
For more information about the conference program, speakers and their topics, visit http://www.pfsc.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?eflag=0&nid=1
Media: Professor Sanders (07 3365 7309, matts@psy.uq.edu.au), Triple P Marketing Manager Leanne Wilkinson (0419 797 134, 07 3236 1212, 07 3365 7290) or Miguel Holland UQ Communications (07 3365 2619)
