Professor Ben Edwards is a Senior Fellow at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods. He is Principal Investigator of GENERATION, a new decade long study following over 15,000 students as they transition to life beyond school.  He is Director of the ANU partnership with Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) subnational project that has collected detailed data on government policy responses to the pandemic.

I have a PhD in Psychology from Deakin University and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours in Psychology).  

Prior to working at the ANU I was Executive Manager, Longitudinal Studies at the Australian Institute of Family Studies where I led the design of Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children and established and led the development of the first national longitudinal study of refugees - Building a New Life in Australia.

I am an expert in longitudinal studies of child and youth development, linkage of administrative data to surveys and longitudinal studies of disadvantaged groups such as refugees. I am a Scientific Advisor to Growing Up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth, Ten to Men, and a new longitudinal of children in the Philippines.  Internationally, Ben is an Executive member of the Society of Longitudinal and Life Course Studies (SLLS) and established the Refugees across the Lifecourse Group.

Nationally he is a recognised leader in social policy issues on children and youth.  His work has highlighted:

• the challenges in the implementation of three year old preschool; 
• the intergenerational impacts of traumatic events on children and youth and 
• best practice in area based initiatives to address disadvantage.

He is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Social Issues.

Ben routinely advises Federal and State government departments and works with international organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  and the UNFPA. 

BA (Honours Psychology), PhD (Psychology)

Children and youth: understanding the role of families, education systems (ECEC, schools, TAFE and university),  neighbourhoods and communities

Advancing longitudinal studies of human development through novel methodologies and data linkage.

Understanding the impact of natural disasters on children and youth and factors that contribute to resilience. 

Evaluation of government programs for disadvantaged children: particularly area based initiatives;

Carers: caring for a family member with a disability; and

The intergenerational impacts of trauma (in refugees families or offspring of war veterans)