The PiP Story
Partners in Parenting (PiP) aims to bridge the gap between complex research evidence and practical resources for parents.
We know that parents play an important role in protecting their child’s mental wellbeing. However, despite extensive research supporting the role parents can play in reducing their teen’s risk of mental health problems, until recently this information was not easily accessible to parents.
PiP brings together decades of high-quality research evidence and the consensus of international experts on parenting and youth mental health. Parents can access this information via an interactive, online program, designed to build skills and confidence in ways that may protect their teen from depression and anxiety disorders.
To date, we’ve conducted three large research trials with over 2000 Australian parents. Our results show that PiP is effective, with benefits for both parents and teens.
Responding to School Refusal: PiP-Ed
We know that school reluctance and refusal problems are common in young people with depression and/or anxiety disorders. Based on feedback from parents who have completed previous versions of PiP, we have added new program content to better support parents of teens with school refusal.
The PiP-Ed program includes two new modules (Understanding school refusal and Working together to overcome school refusal) with evidence-based and expert-endorsed strategies to respond effectively to school refusal.
If you’d like to read more about the research behind PiP, click here for a summary of published papers, or get in touch with us at med-pip-ed@monash.edu.
The people behind PiP-Ed
We are a team of researchers at Monash University, Deakin University, and the University of Melbourne, Australia. We are passionate about supporting parents and improving the mental wellbeing of young people.
Our latest program, PiP-Ed, is made possible through a partnership between the Parenting and Youth Mental Health Group, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, and Action Lab, Faculty of Information Technology. Together, we have redesigned PiP to improve parents’ experience of the program.
A/Prof Marie Yap
Marie is an Associate Professor, Psychologist and Head of the Parenting and Youth Mental Health Group at Monash University. Marie has been recognised as a leading international expert in parent-child relationships.
A/Prof Marie Yap, Monash University
Lead Researcher & Founder of Partners in Parenting
Dr Mairead Cardamone-Breen, Monash University
Development and Evaluation
Dr Mairead Cardamone-Breen
Mairead is a Psychologist and Research Fellow in the Parenting and Youth Mental Health Research Group at Monash University. Mairead has been instrumental in the development and evaluation of the Partners in Parenting program.
A/Prof Glenn Melvin
Glenn is an Associate Professor & clinical psychologist with extensive academic and clinical expertise in adolescent depression, suicide, and school refusal and attendance problems. He is a founder of the International Network for School Attendance. Glenn has supervised the development of the latest PiP-Ed program.
A/Prof Glenn Melvin, Deakin University
Anna Smout
Anna Smout
Anna is completing her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Monash University with the Parenting and Youth Mental Health Group. Anna’s PhD research focuses on how we can support parents of teenagers with school reluctance and refusal difficulties, including co-developing the PiP-Ed program.
Prof Tony Jorm
Tony is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne and an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. His research focuses on public knowledge and beliefs about mental illness, and interventions to improve the public’s helpfulness towards people developing mental illness. Tony has been a key contributor to all PiP projects to date.
Prof Tony Jorm
Action Lab
Action Lab is a multidisciplinary team of impact-focused researchers in the department of Human-Centred Computing at Monash University, Australia. They recently joined the PiP team to co-design the most recent versions of PiP, with the latest technology and their domain expertise in computer science, human-centred design methods, interaction design and digital mental health.
The Action Lab project team is led by Professor Patrick Olivier and includes a highly energetic and creative team of researchers and research engineers: Dr Tom Bartindale, Dr Jue (Grace) Xie, Dr Roisin McNaney, Joshua Seguin, Harrison Marshall and Dr Ling Wu.
Acknowledgements
The Partners in Parenting program is part of a suite of parenting resources from the Parenting Strategies Program, which was first established in 2010. Throughout its 10-year history, the program has had many contributors and funders, whom we cannot all acknowledge by name here. Nonetheless, special thanks go to the following contributors to the Partners in Parenting program: Professor Tony Jorm (University of Melbourne), Dr Katherine Lawrence (Monash University), Professor Ron Rapee (Macquarie University), Jacqueline Green, Clare Nowell (Monash University), and all the staff, students, and volunteers of the Parenting and Youth Mental Health Group from 2014 to 2022.
We also thank the parents and young people who have contributed feedback throughout the different stages of the PiP journey.
We acknowledge with thanks the funding which have supported the development and evaluation of the program from 2011-2021, including: National Health and Medical Research Council (APP IDs 2005621, 566652, 1061744, 400001), Australian Rotary Health, Monash University, and Helen Macpherson Smith Trust.
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