DrShannon Bennetts

Dr Shannon Bennetts has over 15 years' experience in psychological and public health research. She has a background in psychology and psychophysiology and the majority of her research has focused on supporting and understanding the needs of parents, children and families. Her research interests include children's socio-emotional and behavioural development, parenting and parent-child interactions, parent and child mental health, contemporary parenting issues, pets and mental health, chronic pain, and mind-body approaches. Dr Bennetts has supported and led a number of large research projects, including the EHLS at School Study; a school-age follow-up of an early childhood parenting intervention. Dr Bennetts also led the Parents, Pets & Pandemic national survey, and a qualitative evaluation of the Risky Kids community program. 

Dr Bennetts completed her PhD in 2017 with The University of Melbourne, based at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. Her thesis examined "Parent-reported and directly measured child language and parenting behaviours: Agreement, socio-demographic factors and parent perspectives".