Dr Gemma Sicouri is an early career researcher and clinical psychologist at the Black Dog Institute at the University of New South Wales. Her research focuses on understanding the parental and cognitive factors that contribute to children’s anxiety and related disorders to inform the development and evaluation of new and improved psychological treatments. Increasingly her research uses technology to increase the accessibility and cost-effectiveness of treatments for children with anxiety and related disorders.

Gemma has received over $2.5 million in research funding and published over 20 journal articles and book chapters. She has received several awards, including the A H Martin Prize for the top clinical psychology doctorate student, an Australian Postgraduate Award and a Macquarie University Research Fellowship. Gemma was awarded her PhD and Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sydney in 2018 and a Masters of Arts (Economics) at the University in Cambridge in 2003.

Anxiety disorders in children are common and impairing, yet only half of children respond to first-line treatment and access to care is problematic. Parents represent a key route to facilitate and enhance anxiety treatment for children, however, several reviews have concluded that, on average, parent involvement does not impact child outcomes. This conclusion is at odds with models of child anxiety and contrasts with treatments for other child mental health disorders where parents are embedded at the centre of interventions. Many parents have a desire to be involved in their child’s treatment and children want their support. Due to wide variation across studies and a focus on average effects, current meta-analytic evidence may mask the potential benefit of parental involvement in augmenting a key therapeutic target – namely exposure. Existing analyses have also been underpowered to identify children who may particularly benefit.

This project aims to conduct a nuanced investigation in to how to empower parents to optimise child anxiety treatment. First, an individual data patient meta-analysis will investigate whether type of parent involvement (supporting exposures or not) moderates treatment outcomes for child anxiety. Children who particularly benefit (or not) from parent involvement will be identified and broader outcomes will be examined, such as cost benefits. Second, an experimental study will evaluate whether different parent verbal strategies during a child’s exposure task moderates exposure outcomes. Finally, a co-designed parent training module will be evaluated to determine whether it improves treatment outcomes for a digital exposure-based treatment for child anxiety.