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Dr Roberto Parada
Roberto Parada is a registered Psychologist in NSW. Under the supervision of Professors Marsh and Craven, he was the Project Manager of one of New South Wales’ largest projects investigating the psychological effects of bullying and the effectiveness of interventions to prevent it. He was awarded a highly prestigious Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) to pursue this research that forms the basis of his PhD. With a background in education and psychology, Mr Parada has worked in child and adolescent psychiatry and has overseen the evaluation of numerous projects at the Department of Child and Adolescent and Family Psychiatry, Westmead Hospital including the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P)—a NSW strategy for the prevention of conduct disorders. He has clinical experience in working with victims of bullying and has worked with both parents and teachers in the implementation of anti-bullying interventions. He has written reports for the NSW Centre for Mental Health assessing stakeholder needs for young children and adolescents. Mr Parada has published journal articles and book chapters in the area of bullying in schools, has presented at numerous conferences in the area of early intervention and has been featured in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Western Australian, on SBS television and ABC Radio. He has also authored a number of instruments to assess peer relations including bullying.
Roberto currently works as a lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Western Sydney.
Qualifications
BA (Hons), MA (Psych), PhD, UWS
Thesis title
Abstract
Bullying may be one early indicator of a group of behaviours that contributes to the development of antisocial and/or aggressive behaviour patterns and mental health difficulties in late adolescence and adulthood. The aim of this project is to increase mental health well-being and school positiveness by reducing bullying at the school level. The collaborators include Westmead Hospital’s Department of Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry, The University of Western Sydney (formerly UWS Macarthur), and the Marist Education Centre, a psychoeducational and welfare unit for Catholic schools in the Parramatta Diocese. A series of instruments to measure bullying in school have been developed as part of this research project as well as an innovative whole school intervention, the Beyond Bullying Program. This novel anti-bullying program takes a multi-modal approach which, unlike previous interventions, not only highlights school climate but also stresses school and teacher empowerment by training school staff in specific techniques to enhance self-concept, create a positive school climate and manage bullying incidents.
Supervisors
Professor Herb Marsh & Professor Rhonda Craven
