The Australian National University
Child Clinical Psychology
Childhood behaviour problems, such as aggression, defiance and rule breaking, can cause a lot of distress to children, families and schools. If not properly addressed early on, behaviour problems in childhood can escalate over time and considerably decrease an individual’s quality of life from childhood through to adulthood.
Dr Pasalich has been working on developing, implementing and evaluating parenting programs that aim to improve the quality of the parent-child relationship and reduce behaviour problems in at-risk children. These programs have been tailored for children with difficulties in empathy, and for children living in foster care who experience ongoing stressors. His collaborative research has increased our knowledge about why some children develop behaviour problems, and the type of support they may need from their parents and caregivers to positively adjust to challenging life events and circumstances.
Dave has mentored high school science students and presented psychology seminars to students and parents. He also conducts training workshops to educate professional staff caring for vulnerable children on research-based strategies for managing problematic behaviour. He has collaborated with several adult-child mentoring agencies to promote public education about the benefits of child mentoring programs and directly served children with complex needs by providing weekly volunteer mentoring to boys in foster care for the past 7 years.