NDIA Accountability Project

Submission 341 — Parenting Research Centre — Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

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October 2025

Inquiry into the Thriving Kids initiative

A submission to the House Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability

Acknowledgement of Country

The Parenting Research Centre acknowledges and respects the diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of this country and the Elders of the past and present.

Contact

Melbourne office
Hub Southern Cross
Level 2, 696 Bourke Street
Melbourne, Victoria, 3000

Sydney office
Hub Hyde Park
Level 3, 223 Liverpool Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

P: +61 3 8660 3500

E: info@parentingrc.org.au
www.parentingrc.org.au

Primary Contributors

Dr Catherine Wade

Jenny Boadle

Rob Ryan

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Contents

About the Parenting Research Centre 4

   1.1 Our Credibility and Track Record

   1.2 Partnerships and National Leadership

The Central Role of Parenting in Thriving Kids 4

   2.1 Parents as primary agents of change

   2.2 Alignment with Thriving Kids priorities

Evidence Base: What we know 6

   3.1 Parents with an intellectual Disability

   3.2 Parents of children with a Disability

What works in supporting families 8

   4.1 Evidence-based programs

   4.2 Facilitated Peer programs

   4.3 Digital Platforms and information access

The importance of parent-mediated supports 9

Recommendations 10

References 11

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1. About the Parenting Research Centre

1.1 Our Credibility and Track Record

The Parenting Research Centre is an independent, non-profit organisation that helps children thrive by advising on new and better ways to support families in their parenting. We help governments and community organisations in the fields of early childhood, health, education, disability, and welfare put the best evidence on parenting and family support into action.

We have an outstanding record of accomplishment in program development, practice support, research and evaluation related to parenting, including both when the parent has a disability and for parents of children with disability. We focus on achieving real world outcomes by helping service providers, families and policy makers to develop and implement parenting and family support solutions that are informed by evidence and sensitive to culture and context.

1.2 Partnerships and National Leadership

The Parenting Research Centre is a trusted leader in knowledge and practice expertise related to parenting – and we are engaged by government and non-government agencies to utilise our almost 30 years of experience in parenting and parenting support to create new knowledge and support development of services, resources and policy. We are part of the consortium (with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute) delivering the Raising Children Network (RCN), an initiative delivering online resources and information to Australian parents, carers, and professionals. The RCN website has been funded by successive Australian governments since 2006 to bring up-to-date, evidence-based, plain language information about raising children to more than 80,000 parents and professionals every day (with 55 million pageviews).

2. The Central Role of Parenting in Thriving Kids

2.1 Parents as primary agents of change

The Parenting Research Centre recognises there is a strong body of academic evidence that will be platformed in response to the Thriving Kids terms of reference. We have chosen to focus our response on highlighting how our knowledge of supporting parents nationally, through working with jurisdictions and partners, offers insights and recommendations on the scope of the terms of reference. It is critical that the Thriving Kids initiative recognises and supports parents as the primary agents of change in children’s lives through:

  • the recognition of parenting programs as core supports.
  • placing families at the centre of supports for children with disability, in line with the underlying principle of family-centredness.
  • workforce training across health, disability, education, and community services.
  • delivery in inclusive settings—homes, schools, playgroups, health centres, childcare, community hubs, family support services and via digital platforms online.
  • Supporting evidence-based programs and infrastructure and building on existing services such as the Raising Children Network and MyTime.
  • Ensuring that any digital platform recognises the digital divide in regional and remote communities and the need for additional resources and infrastructure to ensure this does not become a further barrier to families and communities.
  • Engage SNAICC to ensure a dedicated funding model for ACCO’s.
  • Supporting the Child and Family Hub network and Placed based initiatives but leverage off national and scalable programs, support and infrastructure to maximise resources and avoid duplication.

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  • Learns from previous work and activity that has been developed by existing networks and structures with deep expertise and practice wisdom such as Child and Family Hubs (MCRI/CCCH), CaFSA, ACaFSA, Thrive by Five, and Thriving Queensland Kids.

Since its inception 1995 the Parenting Research Centre has worked with Federal and state/territory Government Departments to support families and the agencies that support families. Over this time the Parenting Research Centre has been central to the creation of new knowledge through novel research, the development of new programs and practices, and the delivery of professional training and other supports to ensure families impacted by disability have the best available care and resources.

For nine years we led the Commonwealth-funded Healthy Start National Strategy, which supported professionals’ access to best practice information, up-to-date research, and evidence-based programs for parents with intellectual disability and learning difficulties. In partnership with the University of Sydney, the Parenting Research Centre developed a ‘Healthy Start Practice Network’ of professionals, policy makers and researchers who work with parents with intellectual disability to exchange information and resources, facilitating access to best knowledge and expertise and promoting evidence-informed practices tailored to parents’ learning needs. Since 2004 we have trained thousands of professionals in every state and territory in two parent education programs specifically designed for Australian parents with intellectual disability, ultimately benefiting thousands of families.

The Parenting Research Centre also led the development, large scale implementation and evaluation of the Signposts for Building Better Behaviour intervention system for parents of children aged 3 to 16-years with disability (Hudson et al., 2003). Over 2000 parents and carers participated in the evaluation of the Signposts statewide initiative involving the roll out of the program to families across Victoria, with results indicating that parents who participated in Signposts experienced decreased stress and parenting hassles, increased sense of confidence and efficacy, and reduced ratings of their child’s behavioural difficulties (Hudson et al., 2008). Signposts has been demonstrated as being effective in supporting families of children with a disability, regardless of diagnosis, age, or gender (Hudson et al., 2009).

We have also led the design and supported the nation-wide implementation and evaluation of a facilitated peer support model for parents of children up to age 18 with a disability, developmental delay or chronic medical condition through the MyTime program, funded by the Australian Department of Social Services since 2007. MyTime (https://www.mytime.net.au/) groups consist of 4-12 parents, a facilitator to manage group processes, and at least one play helper to keep children engaged in appropriate activities in order to support parent participation in the groups. Parents/carers report overwhelmingly positive experiences from their attendance at MyTime groups, including enhanced social connectedness, feeling supported and increased knowledge. Since its inception, over 20,000 parents/carers across Australia have participated in MyTime.

Peer support interventions aim to enhance the social support available to parents and carers, providing opportunities for participants to share experiences and receive emotional and instrumental (tangible) support from others (including increasing access to local social and health services) (Eysenbach et al., 2004; Law et al., 2002; Wynter et al., 2015). In addition to increasing emotional and instrumental support, peer support interventions may also improve parents’ sense of self-efficacy and confidence in supporting their children’s needs through exposure to incidental learning opportunities and via interactions with others that foster a sense of parental competence (Davies & Hall, 2005; McConnell et al., 2011).

Increased social connections and connectedness can reduce social isolation, which is a known risk factor for poor developmental outcomes for children, young people and families (Commerford & Robinson, 2016)

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2.2 Alignment with Thriving Kids Priorities

We appreciate this opportunity to provide feedback on the Thriving Kids initiative, and our response relates specifically to the critical importance of ensuring parenting programs and evidence-informed parenting supports are widely available to families where a parent has disability and to parents of children with disability.

In summary, our advice is that:

  • Evidence-based parenting programs tailored for parents with intellectual disability and for parents of children with disability be explicitly prioritised.
  • Parenting programs and parent-mediated supports for children are integrated to ensure accessibility and reduce risk of stigma and statutory child protection involvement for families living with disability.
  • Evidence-informed parenting programs designed specifically for parents with intellectual disability and for parents of children with disability are widely available to community-based professionals working with people with disability, through regularly available professional training, preferably with embedded coaching to support professionals to implement programs with fidelity.
  • Family support and child protection staff are made aware of the existence of these evidence-informed parenting programs for people with disability and know where to direct parents for such supports.
  • The current void in the availability of professional supports and resources to deliver best practice to parents with intellectual disability, is addressed through re-establishment of a nation-wide practice network and strategy to support children of parents with intellectual disability.
  • Parents’ access to high-quality, up to date and evidence-based information for parents of children with disability continues to be available and is enhanced.
  • Parents’ access to facilitated peer support programs for parents of children with disability continues to be prioritised and expanded through the delivery of programs like MyTime and that investment includes support for extensions to virtual MyTime to ensure accessibility in regional and remote locations.
  • Ongoing and scaled investment in programs such as the Raising Children Network to ensure maximum access to evidence informed parenting support and resources.
  • Ensuring that any digital platform recognises the digital divide in regional and remote communities.
  • Engage SNAICC to ensure a dedicated funding model for ACCO’s.
  • Supporting the Child and Family Hub network and Placed based initiatives but leverage off national and scalable programs, support and infrastructure to maximise resources and avoid duplication.
  • Learns from previous work and activity that has been developed by existing networks and structures with deep expertise.

3. Evidence Base – What we know

Parents with intellectual disability are a diverse group, and as a group bring a diverse range of strengths and strategies to their parenting. Parents with intellectual disability can support their children’s development and wellbeing and, like all parents, may need support from their family, community and services at times.

Analysis of 2009 Australian Census data that was performed by the Parenting Research Centre in collaboration with researchers at the University of Sydney indicated that at that time parents with intellectual disability only made up 0.01% of the Australian population (Man et al., 2017). In today’s population that would equate to 21,000 parents with identified intellectual disability.

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Many of these 21,000 parents will be faring well. Many, if not most will be parenting without the need for formal support. Many will have good informal support networks that help to ensure their children’s needs are met. Parents with intellectual disability can do a great job of supporting their children’s development and wellbeing, especially if they have the right support from family, their community, and services (Raising Children Network, 2020).

However, parents with intellectual disability can experience social and structural challenges (e.g., poverty, social isolation, homelessness, poor health) that impact negatively on their parenting capacity. These challenges can lead to misunderstandings about their parenting capability and cause critical support needs to be missed by service providers (Collins & Spencer, 2020). Some parents with ID will need support, as many face challenging circumstances that would make any parent vulnerable.

One of the biggest challenges parents with intellectual disability face is experiencing judgement about their ability to raise children (Raising Children Network, 2020). Parents can receive differential treatment from services and their parenting capacity is often questioned (Collins & Spencer, 2020). There are lots of assumptions out there about parents with ID, which can mean they are judged more critically than other parents, so these families are overrepresented in the child protection system (Lima et al., 2022) – true here and internationally.

3.1 Parents with an intellectual disability

We know a lot about what works to support parents in developing new skills to meet their child’s needs. We know that with the right teaching and support strategies, matched to the learning needs of the parent, parents can help their children thrive. There are programs, practices and attitudes that practitioners can bring to their work to support parents with intellectual disability. Research conducted over the past 40 years has provided us with good evidence about the teaching strategies and programmatic approaches that work best to support parenting for parents with intellectual disability. Evidence shows that using strengths and relationship-based approaches that prioritise parents’ voices and wishes, and do not blame parents for the structural and social challenges they experience are important when working with these families (Collins & Spencer, 2020). When it comes to specific teaching strategies, we have two review articles published 14 years apart (Feldman,1994; Wade et al., 2008), summarizing what we know about evidence-based parenting interventions for parents with intellectual disability. The messages from these two articles are pretty consistent (what works to improve parenting practices are things like that teaching occurs in the setting skills taught will be used i.e. home-based, individually tailored, competency-based teaching strategies like role play, coaching, repeated practice in different settings, corrective feedback, positive reinforcement, tailoring to learning needs, teaching is skill-focused, break down complex childcare tasks into steps to be taught individually, etc).

We know that parents with intellectual disability can struggle to engage with parenting programs and supports that are not tailored specifically to their learning needs. Notwithstanding the benefits that can be achieved from peer support in relation to improved sense of connectedness, self-advocacy and confidence, when it comes to learning the skills and behaviours needed to care for babies and young children, parents with intellectual disability tend not to benefit from parenting supports that are delivered in group formats, that rely on complex language and written materials, and that are delivered in unfamiliar settings such as a clinic.

The good news is that there are evidence-informed programs available that cater to the particular learning styles of parents with intellectual disability, and we have in Australia world-leading expertise available that can help shape professionals’ practices and attitudes about effectively supporting parents with intellectual disability.

Since 2003 these programs and this professional training have been available to the field, with extensive uptake of this training over this time across Australia.

While the aforementioned Healthy Start National Strategy focused on supporting the sector to work effectively with parents with intellectual disability is no longer funded, when operating, the Healthy

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Start network included over 60 learning hubs throughout Australia with 100 convenors developing activities to support professionals to support families where a parent had intellectual disability. The network included phone support for practitioners and the development of specialist evidence-based resources, with a website, newsletters and training opportunities. The involvement of two key centres, the Parenting Research Centre and the University of Sydney, ensured a quality, national, practical response to parents and their practitioners was achievable (McConnell et al., 2009). A similar network could help to ensure the delivery of supports to families were evidence-informed and aligned with known best practice in working with people with disability. The benefit to society and government of this will be evidenced through the reduction of children of parents with intellectual disability entering the child protection and family court systems.

3.2 What we know about parents of children with disability

The Parenting Today in Victoria study (https://www.parentingrc.org.au/ptiv/) provides a comprehensive snapshot every three years of the behaviours, needs and concerns of a representative sample of Victorian parents. The study suggests a rise in parent reports of child disability, alongside concerning rates of poor wellbeing among parents of children with disability (Parenting Research Centre, 2023). In 2022, almost one in five parents surveyed reported that their child had a disability, compared to one in ten in 2019.

There is strong evidence to suggest parents and carers of children with disability experience increased stress and reduced quality of life (e.g., Cheshire et al., 2010; Resch et al., 2010; Risdal & Singer, 2004). Caring for a child with disability involves an additional commitment of time, energy and skills (Resch et al., 2010; Turnbull & Ruef, 1997) which can restrict the capacity of parents and carers to engage in health-protective activities such as employment and social activities, with further impacts on parental wellbeing (Heiman, 2002). Evidence also suggests that caring for a child with a disability can impact family functioning and social relationships, contributing towards feelings of isolation (Holmbeck et al., 2002; Kazak, 1987; McGuire et al., 2004; Resch et al., 2010; Strunk, 2010). Given evidence which suggests a strong association between parental wellbeing, parenting practices and child wellbeing (Baker et al., 2003; Giallo et al., 2015; Hastings et al., 2002), practitioners, researchers and policy makers have focused their attention over recent years on the development of evidence-based parenting supports and interventions that aim to reduce distress, strengthen social connections and increase the confidence and efficacy of parents of children with disability.

4. What works in supporting families

4.1 Parenting programs and supports

A growing body of research has investigated interventions designed to improve outcomes for families with a child with a disability.

Based on conceptual models aligned with the principles of family-centred support, which emphasise the importance of supporting parents as agents of change (Birkin et al., 2004), a number of programs for parents of children with a disability have been developed and evaluated (e.g., Einfeld, Clarke, & Tonge, 2013; Hudson et al., 2008; McIntyre, 2008; Singer et al., 2007; Tellegen & Sanders, 2013; Whittingham et al., 2009). These programs have been demonstrated as being effective in improving adaptive parenting behaviours, enhancing parenting efficacy and confidence, improving parental adjustment, strengthening the co-parenting relationship, and improving child outcomes, including reducing child behavioural difficulties. Evidence-based child behaviour support programs such as Signposts for Building Better Behaviour (https://www.parentingrc.org.au/tools/signposts-building-better-behaviour-training-program/) are parent-mediated interventions aimed at guiding children with disability towards positive behaviours that will support their development and wellbeing. Signposts has demonstrated benefits for children with a disability, as well as other family members (Hudson et al., 2003).

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4.2 Facilitated peer support groups and supporting parents

Thriving Kids is an opportunity for not only children with disability to be supported but also their parents and carers. Because of the life-long demands of caring for a child with disability, parents/carers are at an increased risk of chronic physical and psychological problems, social isolation and show poorer psychosocial well-being compared to parents in the general population (Eastman et al., 2018, Edwards, 2009). Poorer parental psychosocial wellbeing and parental social isolations are known risk factors for poor developmental outcome for children, young people and families (e.g., Commerford & Robinson, 2016). Therefore, supporting the parents is crucial to ensuring children with disability and additional needs thrive.

The MyTime program is a light touch, early intervention designed to provide facilitated peer support to parents and carers of children with disability. The program is designed to be nationally coordinated but locally delivered and includes a strong emphasis on being client/parent led. The program model has been developed and refined over the last 16+ years. It is a model that can be efficiently adapted to meet the needs of a variety of client groups and contexts.

For parents and carers of children with complex needs, social and peer support may buffer against the effects of increased stress, improving parental wellbeing and thereby contributing towards improved outcomes for children (Boyd, 2002; Gray, 2002). Peer support interventions aim to enhance the social support available to parents and carers, providing opportunities for participants to share experiences and receive emotional and instrumental (tangible) support from others (including increasing access to local social and health services) (Eysenbach et al., 2004; Law et al., 2002; Wynter et al., 2015). In addition to increasing emotional and instrumental support, peer support interventions may also improve parents’ sense of self-efficacy and confidence in supporting their children’s needs through exposure to incidental learning opportunities and via interactions with others that foster a sense of parental competence (Davies & Hall, 2005; McConnell et al., 2011; Sartore et al., 2013). Social support may also mediate the effects of family stress by contributing towards parental coping (Dunkel-Schetter et al., 1987; Lazarus & Folkman, 1987) and increasing feelings of hope and optimism (Santelli et al., 1997). An example of a well-established facilitated peer support program in Australia is MyTime (https://www.mytime.net.au/) for parents and carers of children up to age 18 with a disability, developmental delay or chronic medical condition. The content and delivery of individual MyTime group sessions are determined at a local level, with an emphasis on providing social support, facilitating the sharing of information and ideas and building parental confidence and wellbeing (Wynter et al., 2015).

4.3 Access to evidence-based, reliable sources of information

Parenting support need not be limited to structured or manualised evidence-based programs. It can incorporate many different types of support such as quality-assured online information, advice and resources, such as provided through the Raising Children Network (http://raisingchildren.net.au), Australia’s premier evidence-based website for parents, which is funded by the Department of Social Services and run by the Parenting Research Centre in collaboration with the Centre for Community Child Health at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Raising Children Network provides a comprehensive range of high-quality videos, apps and articles on health, learning, development and behaviour from pregnancy and infancy through to late teens. User research indicates that parents and professionals who visit the Raising Children Network website are actively seeking credible and reliable information and that their information needs are dynamic.

5. The importance of parent-mediated supports

Parents are their child’s most important support (Doyle et al., 2023; Dyches, et al. 2012; Kaminski et al., 2022; Keating & Hertzman, 1999; Meisels & Shonkoff, 2000; Parenting Research Centre, 2022). They have the most contact with the child. Thus parent-mediated supports for children are likely to bring the greatest impact. This is true both when the parent has the disability, but also when the child has a disability.

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Parents are critical agents of change in the lives of their children. For young children in particular, the role of the parent must be considered central to any child-focused intervention or support.

Parent capacity to be a change agent is strengthened by their engagement with evidence-based parenting programs and through collaboration with the professionals who are supporting the child.

Parent-mediated supports for children are key for improving developmental outcomes for all children - including children with a disability.

Parent-mediated supports offer a range of benefits for children and for the family as a whole. For example, evidence-based parenting programs for families where a parent has intellectual disability (e.g., the Parenting Young Children program and the Healthy and Safe Parent Education Kit) improve child safety and wellbeing, increase positive parent-child interactions, and support child development through enhancing parenting skills and confidence (Wade et al., 2008; Llewellyn et al., 2003). Similarly, programs for parents of children with disability (e.g., Signposts for Building Better Behaviour and Triple P Stepping Stones) have demonstrated benefits for children, parents and the broader family system (e.g., Einfeld, Clarke, & Tonge, 2013; Hudson et al., 2008; McIntyre, 2008; Singer et al., 2007; Tellegen & Sanders, 2013; Whittingham et al., 2009).

Harnessing the power of parents as critical ‘agents of change’ is not only a cost-efficient solution to addressing children’s needs over different developmental periods, but it also builds the capacity of family members to be independent, confident, and equipped to meet the everyday challenges of parenting.

Parenting programs are cost-effective and reduce the need for more intensive supports later, making them a smart investment for government within the offerings available as Thriving Kids s.

Recommendations

We strongly recommend that evidence-based parenting programs tailored for parents with intellectual disability and for parents of children with disability be explicitly prioritised in the Thriving Kids initiative.

Aligned with this overarching priority recommendation, the Parenting Research Centre endorses the following:

  • Integrate parenting programs to ensure accessibility and reduce risk of stigma and statutory child protection involvement.
  • Ensure evidence-informed parenting programs designed specifically for parents with intellectual disability and for parents of children with disability are widely available to community-based professionals working with people with disability, through regularly available professional training, preferably with embedded coaching to support professionals to implement programs with fidelity.
  • Ensure family support and child protection staff are aware of the existence of these evidence-informed parenting programs for people with disability and know where to direct parents for such supports.
  • Funding a ‘Healthy Start version 2’ or similar network would fill a current void in the availability of professional supports to deliver best practice to parents with intellectual disability, and coordinate efforts to build additional resources for the sector. The Network could be co-designed with families and their supporters to ensure evidence-based supports are paired with the knowledge of people with lived experience of disability and parenting, in line with best practice principles.
  • Continue to provide access to high-quality, up to date and evidence-based information for parents of children with disability, such as is available through the Raising Children Network.
  • Prioritise and expand access to facilitated peer support programs for parents of children with disability such as through the MyTime program.
  • Supporting evidence-based programs and infrastructure and building on existing platforms (don’t reinvent the wheel).

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  • Ensuring that any digital platform recognises the digital divide in regional and remote communities and the need for additional resources and infrastructure to ensure this does not become a further barrier to families and communities.
  • Engage SNAICC to ensure a dedicated funding model for ACCO’s.
  • Supporting Hub and Placed based initiatives but leveraged off national and scalable programs, support and infrastructure to maximise resources and avoid duplication.
  • Learns from previous work and activity that has been developed by existing networks and structures with deep expertise and practice wisdom such as CaFSA, ACaFSA, QLD Foundational Supports, Thrive by Five, and Thriving Queensland Kids (a small example of the already well networks).

The Parenting Research Centre welcomes the opportunity to meet with members of the Committee if this would be of assistance and we are happy to support ongoing work or activity to address this important public health issue. We are also delighted to have one of our staff members, Elly Robinson, Principal Specialist on the Thriving Kids Advisory Group in the capacity of bringing evidence to practice, evidence-based knowledge and knowledge transfer expertise.

References

Baker, B. L., McIntyre, L. L., Blacher, J., Crnic, K. A., Edelbrock, C., & Low, C. (2003). Pre-school children with and without developmental delay: Behaviour problems and parenting stress over time. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 47(4-5), 217-230. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2788.2003.00484.x

Birkin, C., Anderson, A., Moore, D. W., & Seymour, F. (2004). Evaluating the efficacy of parent-focused interventions for autism: How do we know what will work? Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 29(3), 42.

Boyd, B. A. (2002). Examining the relationship between stress and lack of social support in mothers of children with autism. Focus on Autism & Other Developmental Disabilities, 17(4), 208–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/10883576020170040301

Burch, K., Simpson, A., Taylor, V., Bala, A. and Morgado De Queiroz, S. (2024). Babies in care proceedings: What do we know about parents with learning disabilities or difficulties? Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. https://www.nuffieldfjo.org.uk/resource/babies-incare-proceedings-what-do-we-know-about-parents-with-learningdisabilities-or-difficulties

Cheshire, A., Barlow, J. H., & Powell, L. A. (2010). The psychosocial well-being of parents of children with cerebral palsy: A comparison study. Disability & Rehabilitation, 32(20), 1673–1677. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638281003649920

Collings, S., Mills, R., Richardson, C. & Wade., C. (June 2024). How to support parents with intellectual disability to meet their parenting goals. Online webinar hosted by the Child Family Community Australia (CFCA) at the Australian Institute of Family Studies and Emerging Minds. Available at: https://aifs.gov.au/webinars/how-support-parents-intellectual-disability-meet-their-parenting-goals

Collings, S., & Spencer, M. (2020) Practices that support parenting by parents with intellectual disability. AIFS. Retrieved from https://aifs.gov.au/resources/short-articles/practices-support-parenting-parents-intellectual-disability

Davies, S., & Hall, D. (2005). “Contact a family”: Professionals and parents in partnership. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 90(10), 1053–1057. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2004.070706

Doyle FL, Morawska A, Higgins DJ, Havighurst SS, Mazzucchelli TG, Toumbourou JW, Middeldorp CM, Chainey C, Cobham VE, Harnett P, Sanders MR. (2023). Policies are Needed to Increase the Reach and Impact of Evidence-Based Parenting Supports: A Call for a Population-Based Approach to Supporting Parents, Children, and Families. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev, 54(3), 891-904.

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Dunkel-Schetter, C., Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S. (1987). Correlates of social support receipt. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 53(1), 71–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.53.1.71

Dyches TT, Smith TB, Korth BB, Roper SO, Mandleco B. (2012). Positive parenting of children with developmental disabilities: a meta-analysis. Res Dev Disabil, 33(6), 2213-20.

Einfeld, S., Clarke, K., & Tonge, B. (2013). Prevention and early intervention for behaviour problems in children with developmental disabilities. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 26(3), 263-269. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e32835fd760

Eysenbach, G., Powell, J., Englesakis, M., Rizo, C., & Stern, A. (2004). Health related virtual communities and electronic support groups: Systematic review of the effects of online peer to peer interactions. BMJ, 328(7449), 1–121. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1166

Feldman M. (1994) Parenting education for parents with intellectual disabilities: a review of outcome studies. Research in Developmental Disabilities 15, 299–332.

Giallo, R., Cooklin, A., Brown, S., Christensen, D., Kingston, D., Liu, C., Wade, C., & Nicholson, J. (2015a). Trajectories of fathers’ psychological distress across the early parenting period: Implications for parenting. Journal of Family Psychology, 29, 766–776. doi: 10.1037/fam0000109

Gray, D. E. (2002). ‘Everybody just freezes. Everybody is just embarrassed’: Felt and enacted stigma among parents of children with high functioning autism. Sociology of Health & Illness, 24(6), 734–749. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.00316

Hastings, R., Kovshoff, H., Ward, N., Espinosa, F., Brown, T., & Remington, B. (2005). Systems analysis of stress and positive perceptions in mothers and fathers of pre-school children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35(5), 635-644. doi: 10.1007/s10803-005-0007-8

Heiman, T. (2002). Parents of children with disabilities: Resilience, coping, and future expectations. Journal of Developmental & Physical Disabilities, 14(2), 159–171. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015219514621

Holmbeck, G. N., Johnson, S. Z., Wills, K. E., McKernon, W., Rose, B., Erklin, S., & Kemper, T. (2002). Observed and perceived parental overprotection in relation to psychosocial adjustment in preadolescents with a physical disability: The mediational role of behavioral autonomy. Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology, 70(1), 96–110. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.70.1.96

Hudson, A., Cameron, C., & Matthews, J. (2008). The wide-scale implementation of a support program for parents of children with an intellectual disability and difficult behaviour. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 33(2), 117-126. doi: 10.1080/13668250802065885

Hudson, A., Matthews, J., Gavidia-Payne, S., Cameron, C., Mildon, R., Radler, G., & Nankervis, K. (2003). Evaluation of an intervention system for parents of children with intellectual disability and challenging behaviour. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 47, 238-249.

Kaminski JW, Robinson LR, Hutchins HJ, Newsome KB, Barry CM. (2022). Evidence base review of couple- and familybased psychosocial interventions to promote infant and early childhood mental health, 2010-2019. J Marital Fam Ther, 48(1), 23-55.

Kazak, A. E. (1987). Families with disabled children: Stress and social networks in three samples. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15(1), 137–146. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00916471

Keating DP, Hertzman C (1999). Developmental health and the wealth of nations: Social, biological, and educational dynamics. The Guilford Press.

Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1987). Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping. European Journal of Personality, 1(3), 141–169. https://doi.org/10.1002/per.2410010304

Law, M., King, S., Stewart, D., & King, G. (2002). The perceived effects of parent-led support groups for parents of children with disabilities. Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 21(2–3), 29–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/J006v21n02_03

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