Personal profile

Biography

Bruce was born in London to an English mother and American father (Buffalo, NY). He has been working as a social scientist in family law for almost 3 decades. Prior to joining the ANU in March 2007, Bruce worked at the Australian Institute of Family Studies in Melbourne as a Senior Research Fellow. He was a member of the Ministerial Taskforce on Child Support (2004-2005), and was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2012-2016) to investigate the high conflict post-divorce shared-time family.

In June 2018, he received the Stanley Cohen Distinguished Research Award from the American Association of Family & Conciliation Courts (AFCC) in recognition of outstanding research and research achievements in the field of family and divorce. In 2021, Bruce and his colleagues were awarded the Meyer Elkin Essay Award for the best article in Family Court Review: COVID-19 in Australia: Impacts on separated families, family law professionals, and family courts.

Bruce is an active member of the ANU Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).

Qualifications

BA, PhD

Research Interests

  • Post-separation patterns of parenting - particularly shared parenting
  • High-conflict divorce
  • Child support
  • Financial living standards after separation
  • Spousal support
  • Binding financial agreements
  • Relocation and parenting disputes
  • Allegations of family violence in family law proceedings
  • Allegations of child sexual abuse
  • Mandatory divorce mediation
  • Digital divorce
  • Family life education
  • The meaning of 'home' to children and young people after parental separation
  • Social research methods
  • Human research ethics and integrity

External Scholarly Memberships and Affiliations

Expert Panel on Child Support, Department of Social Services

1 Jan 202330 Jun 2025

Research student supervision

  • Registered to supervise

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