Research in the area of fertility and family formation investigates the dynamic nature of the family types in which people live, changes in family formation behaviour, and the work-family balance. Studies include the development of new methodologies for monitoring fertility trends, sex preference for children in Australia, living apart together relationships, non-marital childbearing, pathways to first births, repartnering following separation, and negotiating the life course for Australians. This research aims to contribute to the advancement of family policy.

Researchers and Research Areas of Expertise

Assoc Prof (Adjunct) Gordon Carmichael: Fertility; Health Care Administration; Family and Household Studies; Health and Community Services; Population Trends and Policies; Health Policy; Mortality; Culture, Gender, Sexuality; Public Health and Health Services; Demography

Prof Ann Evans: Fertility; Family and Household Studies; Social Change; Demography

Assoc Prof Edith Gray: Family Demography; Inequality in family formation; Repartnering, cohabitation and living-apart-together relationships; Fertility, contraception and travelling for reproductive care; Parenting; Men's involvement in family life; Civic involvement; Data quality; Use of longitudinal data; Ethical issues in research

Emeritus Prof Terence Hull: Demography; Reproduction; Fertility; Population Trends and Policies; Family and Household Studies; Public Health and Health Services; Health Policy; Culture, Gender, Sexuality

Prof James Raymer: Migration; Human Geography; Demography

Dr Michael Roettger: Criminology; Demography; Sociological Methodology and Research Methods; Family and Household Studies; Causes and Prevention Of Crime

Dr Iwu Dwisetyani Utomo: Demography; Ageing; Life Cycle of Young People; Reproductive Health; Gender Empowerment; Studies of Asian Society; Culture, Social Change and Health

Prof Zhongwei Zhao: Demography; Mortality; Fertility; Family and Household Studies; Population Trends and Policies

Current Projects

Inequality in first family formation in contemporary Australia: Funding provided by the Australian Research Council as a 2015 Discovery Project Grant. The timing and context of Australians’ entry into parenthood differs across the socio-economic spectrum. This project investigates the socio-economic disparities in entering parenthood, particularly focusing on education and employment differentials as well as socio-demographic factors such as ethnic and religious background, and experience of family dissolution.

Accountable fertility treatment: An evidenced-based framework for the provision of cost-effective, patient-centred fertility treatment in Australia: Funding provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). Australia has the most supportive funding model for ART in the world through Medicare, yet little policy analysis has been undertaken. This project will fill this policy vacuum by developing an evidence-based framework for cost-effective, patient-centred fertility treatment in Australia

Recent Publications

• Raymer, J, et al. (2019)  Infertility management in women and men attending primary care – patient characteristics, management actions and referrals, Human Reproduction Online, 1-11
• Raymer, James, Qing, Guan, et al. (2019), Projecting future utilization of medically assisted fertility treatments,  Population Studies, online
• Carmichael, Gordon (2019) Indigenous fertility in Australia: updating Alan Gray, Journal of Population Research, September, pp 1-35
• Perelli-Harris, Brienna, Hoherz, Stefanie, Lappegård, Trude, Evans, Ann (2019) Mind the “Happiness” gap: The relationship between cohabitation, marriage and subjective well-being in the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Norway, Demography 56:1219-1246
• Roettger, Mike, Schreier, Hannah, Feinberg, Mark, Jones, Damon (2019) Prospective relations between prenatal maternal cortisol and child health outcomes, Psychosomatic Medicine, V81, 557-565
• Roettger, Michael, Lakewood, Krystal, Dennison, Susan (2019) Indigenous people in Australia and New Zealand and the intergenerational effects of incarceration, Sydney, NSW: New South Wales Department of Justice
• Kippen, Rebecca, Gray, Edith, Evans, Ann (2018) High and Growing Disapproval of sex-selection technology in Australia, Reproductive Health, vol. 15, no. 134, pp. 1-9
• Evans, Ann and Gray, Edith (2018) Marriage and happiness: Australians’ changing attitudes to marriage, in Shaun Wilson and Markus Hadler (ed.), Australian Social Attitudes IV: The age of insecurity, Sydney University Press, Sydney, pp. 195-209

This list summarises major publications by researchers in the ANU School of Demography. For an expanded list of publications, please refer to individual researcher profiles linked above.