Senior Research Fellow
PhD (Clinical Psychology)
Vincent is a Senior Research Fellow in the Human Development and Community Wellbeing team at the Telethon Kids Institute. An early career researcher at The Institute, his work is primarily focused on empowering fathers and father figures to improve the health and wellbeing of children. His role is supported by The Fathering Project.
His research interests are diverse, spanning early neurodevelopment, parenting, child disability, grief, psychopathology, and emotion regulation. Vincent also maintains an active portfolio of teaching and student supervision, having successfully supervised students at the intern, undergraduate, and postgraduate level.
Vincent is also a self-proclaimed ‘stats-nerd’ – having a keen interest in research methodology and quantitative research methods, including scale development, psychometrics, latent profile analysis, latent growth curves, factor analysis, and advanced regression analyses.
In addition to his role at The Institute, Vincent is also an Adjunct Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Curtin University Medical School and Senior Research Fellow with the UWA Law School.
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Publications
January 2024
Emotional labor and emotional exhaustion in psychologists: Preliminary evidence for the protective role of self-compassion and psychological flexibility
The emotional exhaustion component of burnout is concerningly prevalent in psychologists providing psychotherapy. Emotional labor is a known contributor to burnout through the pathway of emotional dissonance and is beginning to develop attention in psychologist wellbeing literature.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Mental healthJanuary 2024Psychosocial wellbeing, parental concerns, and familial impact of children with developmental coordination disorder
Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental condition impacting motor skill acquisition and competence. While previous studies have identified adverse psychosocial outcomes in DCD, they are limited by small or population-screened, community-based samples.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Child Disability Autism Research Developmental Coordination Disorder Child disabilityDecember 2023The effectiveness of community friendship groups on participant social and mental health: a meta-analysis
Social disconnectedness and isolation are risk factors for poor mental health. Community-based friendship group interventions have been designed to increase an individual's social capital and consequently their mental wellbeing. Structured and unstructured friendship groups reflect two distinct approaches to friendship group interventions.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Mental healthDecember 2023Systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevention of internalizing disorders in early childhood
Internalizing problems comprise a significant amount of the mental health difficulties experienced during childhood. Implementing prevention programs during early childhood may prevent internalizing problems. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effect of both targeted and universal prevention programs in preventing internalizing problems for children aged 3- to 5-years and their parents.
Published research Depression and Anxiety Early Childhood Development Human Development and Community Wellbeing Youth mental healthDecember 2023Factors influencing public perceptions of child neglect: A mixed methods study
More than 1 in 5 children experience neglect, exposing them to several adverse consequences. Children with intellectual disability experience additional neglect related challenges. Public perceptions significantly influence the identification, intervention, and prevention of child neglect.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Child Disability Child disabilityOctober 2023The role of fathers in supporting the development of their NICU infant
Contemporary models of NICU care emphasize the critical role of parents in supporting their infant's development. Fathers play an important, but underutilized, role throughout their infant's NICU journey. This narrative review describes the main direct and indirect mechanisms through which fathers support the development of their NICU infant, and the barriers and facilitators to this support as described in current research.
Published research Early Childhood Development Human Development and Community Wellbeing Pre-term birth Maternal healthMay 2023The relationship between parental mental health, reflective functioning coparenting and social emotional development in 0-3 year old children
The transition to parenthood is a high-risk period for many parents and is an important period for child development. Research has identified that parental mental health, reflective functioning (capacity to consider mental states of oneself and others) and coparenting (capacity to work together well as a parenting team) may be particularly significant predictors of later child outcomes, however these factors have seldom been considered together.
Published research Early Childhood Development Human Development and Community Wellbeing Youth mental health Mental healthFebruary 2023Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: Early Irritability as a Transdiagnostic Neurodevelopmental Vulnerability to Later Mental Health Problems
Irritability is a transdiagnostic indicator of child and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problems that is measurable from early life. The objective of this systematic review was to determine the strength of the association between irritability measured from 0 to 5 years and later internalizing and externalizing problems, to identify mediators and moderators of these relationships, and to explore whether the strength of the association varied according to irritability operationalization.
Published research Early Childhood Development Human Development and Community Wellbeing Child Disability Early Neurodevelopment and Mental Health Kids Rehab Research WA Mental healthApril 2023“Connection, community and convenience”: A case study of a Facebook group for fathers navigating parenthood
Fathers remain less likely to participate in parenting interventions which can limit their ability to receive support and build their parenting capacity. The advent of social media has engendered novel opportunities for fathers to connect with, and support, one another in the form of online peer support. Growth of these online communities exemplifies the demand from fathers to relate to other fathers who are navigating parenthood. However, the benefits of membership to these communities remain unclear.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Child careMarch 2023Public stigma toward prolonged grief and COVID-19 bereavement: A vignette-based experiment
We investigated the effects of cause of death and the presence of prolonged grief disorder on eliciting public stigma toward the bereaved.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing COVID-19September 2022Loneliness Versus Distress: A Comparison of Emotion Regulation Profiles
Loneliness, a negative emotion stemming from the perception of unmet social needs, is a major public health concern. Current interventions often target social domains but produce small effects and are not as effective as established emotion regulation (ER)-based interventions for general psychological distress (i.e., depression/anxiety).
Published research Depression and Anxiety Human Development and Community Wellbeing Psychology of Active, Healthy LivingMarch 2022How Caregivers Support Children’s Emotion Regulation: Construct Validation of the Parental Assistance With Child Emotion Regulation (PACER) Questionnaire
Caregivers play a crucial role in supporting the development of their children's emotion regulation. This study validated the Parental Assistance with Child Emotion Regulation (PACER) Questionnaire in a sample of 491 caregivers of young children ≤ 5 years.
Published research Child Health, Development & Education Early Childhood Development Human Development and Community Wellbeing Early Neurodevelopment and Mental HealthOctober 2022Paternal Attachment in the First Five Years: the Role of Self-compassion, Negative Emotional Symptoms, Parenting Stress, and Parent Self-efficacy
Father-child attachment during the first five years of life plays a vital role in child health and wellbeing but remains an under-researched area. Recently, self-compassion has emerged as a mechanism through which parent–child attachment may be optimized via its capacity to promote parental mental health and wellbeing, yet little is known about self-compassion among fathers specifically.
Published research Early Childhood Development Human Development and Community Wellbeing Early Neurodevelopment and Mental HealthSeptember 2022Risk factors for dysfunctional grief and functional impairment for all causes of death during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of meaning
The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with significant social changes due to legislative and public health requirements, has changed the way in which people experience grief. We examined whether dysfunctional grief symptoms, disrupted meaning, risk factors, and functional impairment differed between people bereaved from COVID-19 and from other natural or violent causes in this same period.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing COVID-19June 2022Grief and functional impairment following COVID-19 loss in a treatment-seeking sample: the mediating role of meaning
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented levels of grief and psychological distress in community samples. We examined unique pandemic grief risk factors, dysfunctional grief, Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, general psychiatric distress, disrupted meaning, and functional impairment in a treatment-seeking sample of people bereaved from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing COVID-19March 2023Associations between the human immune system and gut microbiome with neurodevelopment in the first 5 years of life: A systematic scoping review
The aim of this review was to map the literature assessing associations between maternal or infant immune or gut microbiome biomarkers and child neurodevelopmental outcomes within the first 5 years of life. We conducted a PRISMA-ScR compliant review of peer-reviewed, English-language journal articles.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Child Disability Pregnancy and Early Life Immunology Subsite: ORIGINS Project Early Neurodevelopment and Mental HealthJanuary 2023The neglect of a child with intellectual disability as reported in Australian news media: A Foucauldian discourse analysis
People with intellectual disability experience a high risk of being neglected and family members are often identified as the perpetrators. Analysing the media provides insight into public narratives about social problems. A search of Australian newspapers published between 2016 and 2021 identified 27 articles that predominately reported on a single case of familial neglect of an individual with intellectual disability.
Published research Human Development and Community Wellbeing Child Disability Child disabilityAugust 2022Australian Psychologists Experiences with Digital Mental Health: a Qualitative Investigation
Digital mental health is changing the landscape of service delivery by addressing challenges associated with traditional therapy. However, practitioners’ use of these resources remains underexamined.
Human Development and Community Wellbeing Early Neurodevelopment and Mental HealthOctober 2022Maternal emotion regulation and early childhood irritability: The mediating role of child directed emotion regulation strategies
Parental assistance with children's emotion regulation (ER) is a form of emotion socialization behavior that has recently been operationalized with the development of the Parent Assistance with Child Emotion Regulation (PACER) questionnaire.
Published research Early Childhood Development Early Neurodevelopment and Mental HealthMay 2022Unfinished business and self-blaming emotions among those bereaved by a COVID-19 death
In view of the mounting death toll of COVID-19 worldwide and the complicating circumstances that commonly accompany such losses, we studied the grief experiences of 209 adult mourners who lost a loved one to coronavirus with a focus on self-blaming emotions and unresolved issues with the deceased.
Published research Infectious Diseases Early Neurodevelopment and Mental Health COVID-19June 2021Caregiver-mediated interventions to support self-regulation among infants and young children (0-5 years): A protocol for a realist review
Self-regulation is a modifiable protective factor for lifespan mental and physical health outcomes. Early caregiver-mediated interventions to promote infant and child regulatory outcomes prevent long-term developmental, emotional and behavioural difficulties and improve outcomes such as school readiness, educational achievement and economic success. To harness the population health promise of these programmes, there is a need for more nuanced understanding of the impact of these interventions.
Published research Early Childhood Development Child Disability Youth Health Youth Mental Health Early Neurodevelopment and Mental HealthJanuary 2021Sensitivity of the child behaviour checklist sleep items and convergent validity with the Sleep Disorders Scale for Children in a paediatric ADHD
The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) is a commonly used measure of child and adolescent functioning, which includes seven items that can be aggregated to provide a purportedly valid measure of sleep functioning. The objective of this study was to examine the convergent validity of the CBCL in a paediatric ADHD population and to evaluate the sensitivity of the instrument when benchmarked against the Sleep Disorders Scale for Children (SDSC).
Published research ADHD Early Neurodevelopment and Mental Health -
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