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Associate Professor Alina Morawska

Director of Parenting and Family Su

School of Psychology
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
alina@psy.uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 57304

Overview

A/Prof Alina Morawska is Director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre, The University of Queensland. She is passionate about creating a world where children develop the skills, competencies and confidence to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world. Her research focuses on the central role of parents in influencing all aspects of children’s development, and parenting interventions as a way of understanding healthy development, a means for promoting positive family relationships, and a tool for the prevention and early intervention in lifelong health and wellbeing. She has published extensively in the field of parenting and family intervention and has received numerous grants to support her research. She has been recognised as Australia’s top scholar in family studies.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Arts, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Parenting and the development of gender roles

    Gender role stereotypes play an important role in all areas of human development. They affect our emotions, choices, and behaviours in multiple contexts, and set the stage for prejudice and discrimination. While adult gender roles may have changed over the last few decades, most children are exposed to a continuing barrage of stereotyped gender roles from birth: from parents, the media, and peers, and these stereotypes have not changed significantly over time. Many parents express an interest in raising their children in a way that deemphasizes gender, yet there no existing evidence-based approaches focused on minimising the effects of gender role stereotypes in early childhood. This research aims to:

    • Provide a longitudinal description of the early home environment and its influence on infants’ gendered development, with a particular emphasis on the role of parents and specific parenting strategies.
    • Assess the efficacy and mechanisms of change of a brief parenting program delivered prenatally in promoting an early learning environment that deemphasises the role of gender via a randomised controlled trial evaluating proximal program outcomes in the first year of life.

  • Healthy habits: Parenting and the development of health behaviours in the first years of life

    Parents’ ability to guide their children in developing ‘healthy habits’ is key to supporting children’s short- and long-term health and wellbeing. Establishing healthy behaviours in early childhood can lay the foundation for a lifetime of healthy habits and may have greater impact on long-term health than attempting to change entrenched adult behaviour. This program of research aims to establish the key facilitators and barriers to for children and their parents to engaging in healthy habits, and evaluate interventions to promote the development of early health behaviours in young children.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Book Chapter

  • Children's health, physical activity, and nutrition

    Morawska, Alina and Mitchell, Amy E. (2018). Children's health, physical activity, and nutrition. Handbook of parenting and child development across the lifespan. (pp. 289-311) edited by Matthew R. Sanders and Alina Morawska. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-94598-9_13

  • Future directions for research, policy, and practice

    Sanders, Matthew R. and Morawska, Alina (2018). Future directions for research, policy, and practice. Handbook of parenting and child development across the lifespan. (pp. 821-831) edited by Matthew R. Sanders and Alina Morawska. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-94598-9_36

  • Measuring child, parent, and family outcomes at individual and population levels

    Morawska, Alina and Sanders, Matthew R. (2018). Measuring child, parent, and family outcomes at individual and population levels. The power of positive parenting: transforming the lives of children, parents, and communities using the Triple P system. (pp. 395-404) edited by Sanders, Matthew R. and Mazzucchelli, Trevor G.. New York, NY United States: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/med-psych/9780190629069.003.0036

  • Towards an evidence-based population approach to supporting parenting in the early years

    Sanders, Matthew R. and Morawska, Alina (2018). Towards an evidence-based population approach to supporting parenting in the early years. Transforming infant wellbeing: research, policy and practice for the first 1001 critical days. (pp. 163-174) edited by Penelope Leach. Abington, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315452890

  • Parenting

    Sanders, Matthew and Morawska, Alina (2016). Parenting. Psychosocial dimensions of medicine. (pp. 151-163) edited by Jennifer Fitzgerald and Gerard J. Byrne. Research, VIC, Australia: IP Communications.

  • Disorders of childhood

    Morawska, Alina and Sanders, Matthew (2011). Disorders of childhood. Abnormal psychology: Leading researcher perspectives. (pp. 379-418) edited by Elizabeth Rieger. North Ryde, NSW, Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia.

  • Prevention: the role of early universal and targeted interventions

    Sanders, Matthew R. and Morawska, Alina (2010). Prevention: the role of early universal and targeted interventions. Clinical handbook of assessing and treating conduct problems in youth. (pp. 435-454) edited by Rachael C. Murrihy, Antony D. Kidman and Thomas H. Ollendick. New York, United States: Springer Verlag. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4419-6297-3_17

  • Disorders of Childhood

    Morawska, Alina and Sanders, Matthew R. (2008). Disorders of Childhood. Abnormal Psychology: Leading Researcher Perspectives. (pp. 380-420) edited by Rieger, E.. Australia: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd.

  • Can changing parental knowledge, dysfunctional expectations and attributions, and emotion regulation improve outcomes for children?

    Sanders, M. R. and Morawska, A. (2005). Can changing parental knowledge, dysfunctional expectations and attributions, and emotion regulation improve outcomes for children?. Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. (pp. 1-12) edited by Richard E. Tremblay, Ronald G. Barr and Ray de V. Peters. Montreal, Quebec: Centre of Excellence of Early Childhood Development.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Raising voices: Examining the role of parent-directed interventions in supporting children's early language development

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Challenges and Opportunities Evidence-based Parenting Programs in Indonesia: Comparative Study Among Different Socio-economic Family Group

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The efficacy of Triple P with Deaf children in Indonesia

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • The impact of parent mental health symptoms on parenting and family adjustment outcomes in families who attend a child development service

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Parenting after migration exploration of the unique parenting needs of migrant parents to australia

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Parenting and the development of gender roles

    Gender role stereotypes play an important role in all areas of human development. They affect our emotions, choices, and behaviours in multiple contexts, and set the stage for prejudice and discrimination. While adult gender roles may have changed over the last few decades, most children are exposed to a continuing barrage of stereotyped gender roles from birth: from parents, the media, and peers, and these stereotypes have not changed significantly over time. Many parents express an interest in raising their children in a way that deemphasizes gender, yet there no existing evidence-based approaches focused on minimising the effects of gender role stereotypes in early childhood. This research aims to:

    • Provide a longitudinal description of the early home environment and its influence on infants’ gendered development, with a particular emphasis on the role of parents and specific parenting strategies.
    • Assess the efficacy and mechanisms of change of a brief parenting program delivered prenatally in promoting an early learning environment that deemphasises the role of gender via a randomised controlled trial evaluating proximal program outcomes in the first year of life.

  • Healthy habits: Parenting and the development of health behaviours in the first years of life

    Parents’ ability to guide their children in developing ‘healthy habits’ is key to supporting children’s short- and long-term health and wellbeing. Establishing healthy behaviours in early childhood can lay the foundation for a lifetime of healthy habits and may have greater impact on long-term health than attempting to change entrenched adult behaviour. This program of research aims to establish the key facilitators and barriers to for children and their parents to engaging in healthy habits, and evaluate interventions to promote the development of early health behaviours in young children.

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Children and emotion, Emotion in children, Children and behavioural problems, Behaviour in children, Family therapy, Parenting, Psychology - family, Psychology - child

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ORCID: 0000-0002-9404-5423

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