Catia Malvaso

Dr Catia Malvaso

ARC Externally Funded Research Fellow (C)

School of Psychology

Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


I am an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology and and the criminal justice lead in BetterStart Health and Development Research in the School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide.

My research is informed by cross-disciplinary knowledge, including developmental psychology, developmental and life course criminology, and epidemiology. My primary area of expertise is the link between childhood maltreatment and subsequent offending behaviour in adolescence and adulthood. My current program of research focuses on identifying opportunities for prevention in maltreatment-offending pathways.

I am a grant-funded researcher with expertise in the areas of child protection and criminal justice. I lead a program of research which aims to identify prevention and early investment opportunities to disrupt pathways from maltreatment to offending behaviour.

I am positioned across two schools in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences – Psychology and Public Health – due to the cross-disciplinary nature of my research. In Public Health, I am the Criminal Justice lead within BetterStart Health and Development Research - see https://health.adelaide.edu.au/betterstart/

I completed my PhD on the association between child protection and youth justice system contact in 2017, for which I was awarded a Dean's Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence and the Frank Dalziel Prize for Best Psychology Thesis from the School of Psychology.

I was awarded a nationally competitive Australian Research Council Discovery Early Researcher Career Award (DECRA) in November 2019. In 2020, I was awarded an Early Career Researcher Prize from the American Society of Criminology, and in 2021 a Tall Poppy Award for excellence in research achievement and community engagement from the Australian Institute of Policy and Science.

I have lead multiple complex research projects in hard-to-reach populations, requiring ethics and data custodian approvals, setting up appropriate governance structures with community consultation, and establishing government partnerships to ensure that research findings are translated. Evidence from my research is used to inform prevention strategies that can alter pathways from maltreatment to offending by identifying when to intervene, which factors to target, and for whom.

Year

Type

Role

Amount

Funder, title

2022 Cat 1 Grant CID $548,000 Australian Research Council, Discovery Project. Families with multiple and complex needs: refocusing on early intervention
2022 Contract CIA $187,721 Department of Correctional Services. Supporting prevention of criminal justice system contact among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
2022 Cat 2-4 Grant CIA $190,000 Department of Human Services, Youth Justice. Implementing a research and service development partnership.
2022 Cat 2-4 Grant CIA $99,894 Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation. Children who offend: Understanding and responding to early-onset criminal behaviour
2022 Cat 2-4 Grant CIB $96,571 Grant (Cat 2-4): Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation. Out-of-home care is not one thing: Effects of complex care patterns on health, development and welfare outcomes

2021

Contract

CIB

$200,000

Department for Human Services, Early Intervention Research Directorate. Scoping system wide capacity for the prevention of child maltreatment

2021

Internal

CIC

$88,566

University of Adelaide, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Strategic Research Support Scheme, Developing capacity to investigate the role of poverty in child maltreatment

2021

Internal

CID

$109,217

University of Adelaide, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Strategic Research Support Scheme, Children’s visual attention and responses to affective interactions

2020

Contract

CIA

$23,261

Department for Human Services, Exceptional Needs Unit. Developing a practice framework for engaging with young people with complex support needs.

2020

Internal

CIB

$2,000

University of Adelaide, School of Psychology and SA Health Collaboration. Building a database using Child Protective Services records for research and clinical purposes.

2019

Cat 1 Grant

CIA

$416,761

Australian Research Council, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. Child maltreatment, youth and adult offending: Pathways and prevention.

2019

Consultancy

CIA

$2,500

Department for Human Services, Youth Justice Directorate. Analysis of the Youth Justice Assessment and Intervention Service screening project.

2019

Cat 2-4 Grant

CIA

$95,850

Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation. The crossover of children from out-of-home care into youth justice: Identifying opportunities for early intervention.

2019

Contract

CIB

$128,000

Department for Child Protection and Centacare Catholic Family Services. Evaluation of the Adolescent Reunification Program.

2018

Cat 2-4 Grant

CIA

$75,893

Criminology Research Council, Australian Institute of Criminology. Adverse childhood experiences and trauma among young people in youth justice.

2017

Consultancy

CIA

$89,200

Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory. Provision of services.

I teach into a number of undergraduate psychology courses where I am able to embed my research into my teaching and translate cross-disciplinary knowledge from psychology, public health and criminology. The courses I taught into in 2022 included:

  • Second year Psychology in Society (intercultural component)
  • Third year Health and Lifespan Development (child development component)
  • Third year Advanced Research Methods and Skills (data linkage)
  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2023 Principal Supervisor The intersection between Out-of-Home Care and Youth Justice involvement and the barriers to supporting young people with complex behaviours Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Tessa Gloede
    2023 Co-Supervisor Using linked administrative data and cross-country comparisons to investigate the applications of overseas models in South Australian community services: A homelessness example Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Jessica Ann Dobrovic
    2022 Co-Supervisor Moving towards a fairer Australia: disentangling multidimensional disadvantage and child protection contact Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Anna Anne Kalamkarian
    2022 Co-Supervisor Investigating the intersection of parental substance misuse and child protection contact using whole of population linked data enriched with service system perspectives Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Miss Kimberly Jade Klassman
    2021 Co-Supervisor Investigating out-of-home care contact and mental health sequelae using linked whole-of-population data Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Jessica Renee Judd
  • Other Supervision Activities

    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2019 - ongoing Co-Supervisor Suicidal risk in young Indigenous and non-Indigenous males in Youth Justice: Understanding the role of early child maltreatment and other risk factors University of Adelaide - Honours - Matilda D'Antoine
  • Mentoring

    Date Topic Location Name
    2019 - ongoing Bachelor of Psychology Advanced student University of Adelaide Anna Hilferty
  • Committee Memberships

    Date Role Committee Institution Country
    2019 - ongoing Board Member Australian & New Zealand Society of Psychology, Psychiatry and Law (ANZAPPL) SA branch Australian & New Zealand Society of Psychology, Psychiatry and Law Australia
    2019 - ongoing Co-Chair Developmental and Life Course Criminology Thematic Group Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology Australia
  • Memberships

    Date Role Membership Country
    2019 - ongoing Member Australian & New Zealand Society of Criminology Australia
    2019 - ongoing Member American Society of Criminology United States
    2018 - ongoing Board Member Australian & New Zealand Society for Psychology, Psychiatry and Law Australia
  • Consulting/Advisories

    Date Institution Department Organisation Type Country
    2017 - ongoing Youth Justice Psychology Services Youth Justice Health services and related Australia
    2017 - ongoing Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory Attorney General's Department Health services and related Australia
  • Expert Witness

    Date Case Institution Country
    2015 - ongoing Child Protection Systems Royal Commission University of Adelaide -
  • Review, Assessment, Editorial and Advice

    Date Title Type Institution Country
    2019 - ongoing Child Maltreatment and Aggressive Behaviors in Early Adolescence: Evidence of Moderation by Parent/Child Relationship Quality Journal Review Child Maltreatment -
    2019 - ongoing Parental death during childhood and violent crime in late adolescence to early adulthood – a Swedish national cohort study Journal Review Palgrave Communications -
    2019 - ongoing A prospective, longitudinal study of risk factors for early onset of delinquency among maltreated youth Journal Review Children and Youth Services Review -
    2019 - ongoing What happens to children born to young people in and leaving state care and why? Journal Review Children and Youth Services Review -
    2019 - ongoing A Descriptive Analysis of the Child Protection Histories of Youth and Young Adults Arrested in California Journal Review Child Maltreatment -
    2018 - ongoing Services to young people with complex support needs in rural and regional Australia: Beyond a metro-centric response Journal Review Children and Youth Services Review -
    2018 - ongoing The intersection between the child protection and youth justice systems’ for your review Peer Review Child Family Community Australia -
    2018 - ongoing Childhood victimization, recent injustice, anger and forgiveness in a sample of male prison inmates Journal Review Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology -
  • Position: ARC Externally Funded Research Fellow (C)
  • Phone: 83131682
  • Email: catia.malvaso@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Hughes, floor 7
  • Org Unit: Psychology

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