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Abstract Submission Page

Call for abstracts

The I-CEPS is inviting abstract submissions of papers, rapid papers, and symposia across a broad range of domains related to children, parents and families. All abstracts submitted must relate to the Congress themes. Presentations may cover policy, practice and research relating to parenting programs and services, program design and development, theory development and testing, and consumer focused applications. Information about how the research contributes to a global perspective on parenting is encouraged.

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Please note:

  • You will need to register with vFairs before submitting an abstract.

  • Once inside the submission portal please select 'All' as your abstract type in the + add abstract drop-down menu.

Key Dates:

Submissions opening date: 23 August 2024
Submissions closing date: 31 December 2024
Acceptance advised: 31 January 2025
Recording submission deadline: 15 April 2025

Abstract Themes and Topics

The overall theme for I-CEPS 2025 is 'Parenting support: A common pathway to improving diverse outcomes for children and young people.'

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We warmly welcome abstracts from researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and professionals that address issues of parenting and related topics under the following themes.

1. Parenting, child health and development

  • Child social, emotional, and/or behavioral health

  • Caregiver-child relationships

  • Child cognitive development and learning

  • Parenting and child neurobiological development

  • Emotion regulation in parents and/or children

  • Child physical health (e.g., lifestyle interventions)

  • Parental mental health, wellbeing, and parenting

2. Prevention and early intervention

  • Prevention of child social, emotional, and/or behavioral problems

  • Prevention of child maltreatment 

  • The role of child rights in early intervention 

  • The role of parenting in the prevention of youth offending

  • Parenting and early care and education 

  • Parenting support for parents in the perinatal period

3. Novel trends in parenting support

  • Use of technology in parenting interventions (e.g., apps, online, AI)

  • Combining parenting support models

  • Social media data and applications

  • Parenting and climate anxiety

  • Relevance of parenting to sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

4. Parenting support for diverse family needs

  • Families of children with developmental disabilities and/or complex health needs

  • Working with parents with complex mental health and/or substance abuse problems

  • Parenting support for intergenerational maltreatment and trauma

  • Trauma-informed approaches for strengthening child, caregiver and provider resilience

  • Support for parents of neurodivergent children

  • Improving outcomes for hard to reach and vulnerable families

  • Working with specific populations (e.g., child protection, corrective services, culturally/linguistically diverse, parents of LGBTQI+ youth, literacy issues)

  • Disadvantaged communities

  • Community safety and family violence

5. Workforce support and development

  • Training and workforce development

  • Understanding the support needs of professionals

  • Burnout and self-care 

  • Innovations to support professionals across settings

  • Establishment of peer support networks (e.g., for research or practice)

6. Enhancing reach and implementation

  • Implementation of universal approaches

  • Implementation support

  • Novel contexts, settings, or strategies (e.g., schools)

  • Sustained deployment of evidence-based parenting support

  • Specific methods of delivery

  • Increasing availability of services

  • Adaptation and tailoring for diverse populations and settings

  • Contextual fit of evidence-based programs (e.g., cultural adaptation)

  • Consumer and end user involvement

  • Policies and politics of parenting support

  • Influencing policy development and funding

7. Demonstrating change and impact

  • Demonstrating outcomes of evidence-based parenting support

  • Novel measures for clinical practice with parents/caregivers

  • Measurement challenges and/or future directions of measurement

  • Innovations in measurement of parenting (e.g., observation, wearables, data mining)

  • Individual and population level outcomes specific to parenting interventions

  • Advances in process and outcome measures

  • Economic analyses regarding impacts of parenting interventions

  • Mechanisms of change explaining the effects of parenting programs

  • Measuring reach and engagement

  • Policy analysis

Submission Options*

Rapid individual paper presentations

We invite the submission of a rapid paper presentation (5 minutes). Rapid papers are best suited for planned, in progress, and pilot projects (e.g., study protocols or brief reports). Submissions should use the following structure where possible—background and objectives, method, results (if applicable) and implications for policy, research and practice. 

Individual paper presentations

We invite the submission of a regular paper presentation (15 minutes). Submissions should use the following structure where possible—background and objectives, method, results and implications for policy, research and practice. 

Organised paper symposia

We invite the submission of an organised paper symposia. Symposia should consist of 3-4 paper presentations around a single theme, preferably with a discussant that links the papers together and facilitates group discussion. Submissions for symposia should clearly state the objective and format of the session. Presenters will also need to fill out abstract details for each individual paper using the template provided on the abstract submission form.

* Please note the conference organisers reserve the right to move the category of your submission (e.g., an individual paper submission may be re-allocated and accepted as a rapid paper presentation).

Submission Guidelines

  • All abstracts must be submitted in English

  • Abstracts must not exceed 550 words. Please use the following sections: Background 100 words; Methods 150 words; Findings 150 words; Implications for policy, research and practice 100 words

  • Symposia will allow up to four abstract submissions

  • References are not required

  • Abstracts should contain text only (no diagrams, links or attachments)

  • All details should be accurate, as your submission will be reproduced in the Book of Abstracts and Conference Proceedings.

  • Please select relevant themes and keywords. All presentations will be grouped together by themes and keywords to assist attendee navigation.

  • All submissions should cover some aspect of parenting, family or implementation science research.

     

Any submission that does not adhere to these guidelines will not be accepted. 

Presentation Guidelines

  • If accepted, presentations and symposia must be pre-recorded.

  • All presenters and discussants are required to register and pay to attend the Congress.

  • Further information about presentation requirements will accompany the notification of acceptance in January 2025.

Review Criteria

Relevance

  • Clearly articulates connection with parenting support (broadly defined)

  • Alignment with one or more I-CEPS themes was specified

Quality

  • Clear articulation of primary research, practice or policy question/issue

  • Empirical evidence is available or will be made available by the time of the Congress (NA if the proposal is a description of a practice model or policy approach)

  • Methods/approach are appropriate to answer research, practice or policy question/issue

  • Findings/results/implications are clearly presented (if findings/results are not yet available or not applicable for the paper type, how clearly are potential implications discussed?)

  • At least one contribution to the literature, implication for practice or policy or future research direction is clearly outlined and justified by results

Overall

  • Expect the topic will be found to be exciting or particularly interesting to I-CEPS participants (e.g., cutting edge research, ‘hot topic’)

  • Submission was clearly written

Extra points (up to two)

  • Proposal was conducted in (all or partially) low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)

  • Proposal addresses needs in traditionally underrepresented or understudied populations

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