Sara Cibralic

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Research Associate at UNSW Sydney

Background Numerous systematic reviews have shown home visiting interventions to be effective at improving a variety of parent and child outcomes. No review has, however, examined the impact of home visiting programs targeting child (aged 0–5 years) mental health, socioemotional and/or developmental outcomes in the context of families with high vul...

Child abuse is a significant public health concern that impacts children worldwide. Efforts to connect at-risk parents with prevention and intervention programs require the use of high-quality measures that evaluate child abuse potential. The widely-used Brief Child Abuse Potential Inventory (BCAP) contains response bias indices. Little is known ab...

Background Parent–Child Interaction Therapy—Toddler (PCIT-T) is an attachment-informed intervention model designed to meet the specific developmental needs of toddlers aged 12–24 months presenting with challenging behaviors. Methods This study used a randomized controlled design to evaluate outcomes of PCIT-T for children aged 14–24 months with di...

The State-wide Outreach Perinatal Services – Mental Health (SwOPS) is a telehealth consultation liaison service aimed at bridging the gap in perinatal mental health service provision in rural and remote areas across New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The service enables health professionals working within the NSW health service to refer perinatal wo...

Using a cross-sectional design, this study explored attachment insecurity and disorganization (assessed using the Strange Situation Procedure) in 90 toddlers (aged 14–24 months) with and without autism traits and assessed the associations between autism traits (severity and profiles) and both developmental level and attachment classification. Our f...

Background Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has varying prevalence rates worldwide, often higher in culturally diverse populations. Cultural differences can affect autism symptom recognition. Language barriers and differing healthcare attitudes may delay diagnosis and intervention. Most autism screening tools were developed in Western, predominantly...

Background Mothers with mild to moderate depression in pregnancy are at risk of developing postpartum depression. Midwife-led continuity of care may support maternal mental health throughout the perinatal period. Research is needed to better understand how continuity of care may support mothers experiencing depression in pregnancy. This study aimed...

Background Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has varying prevalence rates worldwide, often higher in culturally diverse populations. Cultural differences can affect autism symptom recognition. Language barriers and differing healthcare attitudes may delay diagnosis and intervention. Most autism screening tools were developed in Western, predominantly...

Background Evidence suggests that enhanced midwifery care may lead to reduction of antenatal distress among pregnant women. Nevertheless, the access/uptake and outcomes for expectant mothers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds may be limited. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of enhanced midwifery care in redu...

Disruptive behavior problems among young children can result in long-term negative consequences, highlighting the importance of early interventions. While there have been recent developments in early interventions (e.g., Parent–Child Interaction Therapy-Toddler), there is a need for brief assessments for toddler disruptive behaviors. The current st...

Objective To examine and synthesize the literature on the use of universal developmental screening and surveillance tools in high-income countries in relation to (1) psychometric properties; (2) knowledge, acceptability, and feasibility of tools; and (3) follow-up taken following screening/surveillance. Method A PRISMA-compliant systematic review...

Language ability has been associated with emotion regulation (ER) ability. Children on the autism spectrum have greater rates of language delays and lower ER ability. Despite this, autism traits have not been considered or controlled for in past research. This study therefore examined the association between language ability and ER in young childre...

Background Access to perinatal mental health services in rural and remote areas is scarce, particularly perinatal psychiatry services. Telehealth, together with psychiatry consultation-liaison services are one way to improve access to areas of need. The New South Wales State-wide Outreach Perinatal Services – Mental Health (SwOPS) program is a Sydn...

The purpose of this perspective article is to emphasise the importance of the 'First 2000 Days' policy of life from conception to age five, and to propose new directions in which the policy's implementation could be extended for the benefit of children and families. The proposed approach highlights principles of responsiveness, integration, sustain...

Developmental surveillance and screening is recommended for all children under five years of age, especially for those from at-risk populations such as First Nations children. No review to date has, however, evaluated the use of developmental screening tools with First Nations children. This review aimed to examine and synthesise the literature on...

Background : Systematic reviews have shown that midwifery continuity of care programs lead to improvements in birth outcomes for women and babies, but no reviews have focused specifically on the impact of midwifery continuity of care on maternal mental health outcomes. Objective : To systematically review the available evidence on the impact of mi...

Child-caregiver attachment is important for healthy child development and is often targeted by relationship-based parenting interventions for young children. To assess the efficacy of these interventions, attachment must be measured accurately at multiple timepoints across the toddler years, coinciding with different stages of development. Among ot...

Objective To examine and synthesise the literature on adverse childhood experience (ACE) screening in clinical and healthcare settings servicing children (0–11) and young people (12–25). Design A systematic review of literature was undertaken. Data source PsycInfo, Web of Science, Embase, PubMed and CINAHL were searched through June 2021. Additio...

There is strong evidence to show links between attachment security in young children and a range of positive outcomes in social, emotional, and psychological domains. The aims of this review were to provide a narrative summary of (1) the attachment-based interventions currently available for caregivers of toddlers aged 12–24 months and for which re...

Introduction The increasing prevalence of developmental disorders in early childhood poses a significant global health burden. Early detection of developmental problems is vital to ensure timely access to early intervention, and universal developmental surveillance is recommended best practice for identifying issues. Despite this, there is currentl...

This study systematically reviewed available evidence regarding associations between polymorphisms of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and socio-emotional and behavioral functioning in children and adolescents. The search yielded 69 articles, which were grouped into nine categories: depression, anxiety, and internalizing symptoms, alcohol abuse, b...

Background Systematic reviews have shown attachment-based parenting programs to lead to improvements in parenting sensitivity and infant attachment, but none have focused specifically on the impact of attachment-based parenting programs on externalizing symptoms in young children.Objective The objective of this study was to review published randomi...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated economic recession has increased parental psychosocial stress and mental health challenges. This has adversely impacted child development and wellbeing, particularly for children from priority populations (culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and rural/regional communities) who are at an a...

Objective: To establish any health outcomes for infants to age one, associated with their mother having a diagnosis of an active eating disorder during pregnancy or the 12-month postnatal period. Method: A qualitative systematic literature review of numerous databases (Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane Library, MedNar, PsycExtra, Natio...

Background . In Australia, clinical practice guidelines have been developed to support the implementation of antenatal psychosocial assessment and depression screening in routine clinical obstetric care. While there has been widespread uptake of antenatal psychosocial assessment and depression screening programs in Australian public hospitals, impl...

Background: Perinatal mental ill-health is a global health priority. Mental health screening during pregnancy is a routine part of clinical practice in many public hospital obstetric services across Australia, but implementation in the private hospital system has lagged. Aims: This study explored health professionals' perspectives on the Pre-adm...

Up to 27% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience clinically significant externalizing behavior. Child emotional dysregulation is thought to be one of the main reasons for the manifestation of externalizing behaviors during toddlerhood and has also been associated with insecure and disorganized parent-child attachment relationshi...

Background: It is common for toddlers to display disruptive behaviors (e.g., tantrums, aggression, irritability) but when these become severe and persistent they can be the start of a trajectory towards poor outcomes in childhood and adolescence. Parent Child Interaction Therapy - Toddler is an intervention model designed to meet the specific deve...

Objective To evaluate a Quiz designed to enhance communication and understanding in expectant parents. Background A supportive and understanding relationship is associated with better maternal mental health outcomes. Many services therefore advocate that couples should communicate openly with each other, particularly about worries or concerns eith...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to develop the Karitane Family Outcomes Tool (KFOT), a brief parent‐report questionnaire to measure outcomes of Australian Early Parenting Centres (EPCs) and similar programmes worldwide. Design and Methods The study was conducted in two stages. In Stage One, an initial item pool (80 items) was developed via f...

Parent–child interaction therapy with toddlers (PCIT‐T) is an adaptation of standard PCIT, developed to treat young children (12–24 months) with disruptive behaviours. The aim of this study was to gather preliminary qualitative data to gauge parental perceptions about the program. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with five parents who rece...

Introduction: Parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based parent management training program for the treatment of childhood disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs). In Australia, however, due to a lack of services in regional, rural and remote areas, the program is not accessible to all families who might benefit. Preliminary eviden...

Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) is a short‐term, evidence‐based parent training program for parents of children aged 2–7 years with disruptive behaviour disorders (DBDs). The evidence‐base for the effectiveness of PCIT is extensive but to date most studies have been quantitative in nature and conducted in university research clinics within...

The ability to establish an attachment bond with a caregiver, an evolutionary process that keeps a child safe and nurtured, is a phenomenon that occurs naturally in all young children. Historically, however, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were thought to be unable to form such bonds (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). This chapt...

The Maudsley and more recent family-based therapy manualised approaches are positioned by some as the gold standard, evidence-based therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN). However, a significant proportion of adolescents and their families either discontinue this therapy and/or find that it simply does not work for them. These adolescents and...

Men who experience eating disorders are underrepresented in the body of research into eating disorders. Even less is known about men who may experience a troubled relationship with eating and their bodies but whose reported symptoms are subclinical. How do these men understand their experiences? And what does it mean for them to locate their experi...