Michael Tarren-sweeney

Biography

Overview The inner world and subjective distress of children who have been harmed and emotionally deprived is mysterious and largely unknown. My journey towards understanding the minds of such children, as well as the causes of their psychic impairment, began in 1989, when I started to work as a child and family psychologist in child protection and alternate care. Aside from realising that working with such children was a great privilege, I was struck by the absence of empirical knowledge about their mental health and well-being of the lack of conceptual frameworks, of various phenomenological mysteries, and a reliance on non-standardised and subjective measurement tools. Few people in the world had researched these issues for maltreated children, and even fewer had looked in any detail at the problems of children in care. Over time I resolved to devote my lifes work to pursuing such research questions, and to develop more specific measurement tools, in the hope that this might lead to better prevention, identification and treatment of the psychological problems manifested by such children. I was also motivated by a strong intellectual curiosity. With this in mind I completed graduate training in psychiatric epidemiology, established a Psychologists Research group in the NSW Department of Community Services, and embarked on the Children in Care study. Both the Children in Care study and the development of the Assessment Checklist for Children (see descriptions below) represent groundbreaking research in this specialised field. The findings from these studies are contributing to re-conceptualisation of the development and psychiatric problems of children in care. For example, patterns of aberrant eating behaviour have been identified for the first time in this population, leading to the proposal of a syndrome (termed Food Maintenance Syndrome). Some of the findings and theoretical formulations that have come from this research are published or submitted for publication (see publication list), while further research questions are to be addressed in a follow-up study (commencing later this year). With over half of the several hundred thousand children residing in long-term alternate care in the developed world estimated to have some form of psychiatric disturbance, my research program has major public health significance. Research interests * Developmental psychopathology, with special interest in the epidemiology, phenomenology and determinants of psychopathology among maltreated children, and children in alternate care * Social policy for high-risk children (especially regarding primary prevention of psychopathology) * Measurement and screening of mental health problems and attachment difficulties among children in care * Attachment disorders, and the spectrum of attachment difficulties * Significance of loss and disrupted attachments among maltreated children entering care * Mental health of inter-country adoptees * Mental health of indigenous children * The mental health and wellbeing of children in rural and remote communities * Teaching health equity * Remote problem-based learning Research skills / experience * Large-scale epidemiological research * Test development, psychometrics, mental health screening * Phenomenological investigations and enquiry * Qualitative methods * Data analysis (STATA) and database management * Meta-analysis and clinical reviews 

Research Interest

Paediatrics and Reproductive Medicine , Psychology