Sonia McCallum

Dr. Sonia McCallum is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Mental Health Research within the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on improving mental health in children, youth, and parents, with current work evaluating interventions to help parents recognize and respond to child mental health issues like anxiety and suicide.

Education

• PhD (Adel)
• GradCertPHC (Flin)
• BHlthSc(Hons) (Adel)
• BSc (Adel)

Research Focus

Dr. McCallum's work centers on mental health literacy, help-seeking behaviors, and evaluation of interventions for youth and families. She investigates depression/anxiety disorders and develops tools for caregivers. Her methodologies include randomized trials, longitudinal studies, and qualitative approaches targeting at-risk populations.

Publication Trends

Her 33+ publications emphasize youth suicide prevention, COVID-19 mental health impacts, school-based interventions, and digital health solutions. Recent work explores emotion regulation, telehealth utilization, and parental roles in mental health support, often using cohort studies and program evaluations.

Projects & Supervision

• Reducing childhood psychological distress in disasters (Researcher, 2024-2026)
• Cluster RCT of mental health education in ACT schools (Researcher, 2023-2025)
• Parent/Child Mental Health Literacy (Researcher, 2021-2023)

Registered to supervise students and leads evaluations of parent-focused interventions.

Affiliations

Member of the Child, Youth and Family Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Unit. Collaborates on multidisciplinary teams developing school and digital health interventions.