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Emily Steele

M.P.H., B.Appl.Sc(Physiotherapy)

PhD Candidate

PhD Research Project

Emily has been awarded an NHMRC Public Health Postgraduate Scholarship to undertake her PhD project (commenced in July 2005), entitled ‘How do patterns of financial insecurity and the nature and (in) security of work in young women's lives relate to delayed childbearing?' The project aims, through an examination of the life course of women (focussing in detail on the years between 20-30 years of age), to link specific social structures to individual lives with respect to delaying childbirth.

Project Objectives:

•  To highlight the role that specific social forces (work environment and expectations, and financial obligations and insecurities) play in shaping women's fertility behaviour, specifically in delaying childbearing

•  To explore the differential patterns of pathways (over time) to delayed mothering between groups of women with unequal opportunities within social structures (e.g. different levels of education, different levels of job stability)

Supervisors:

Dr Vivienne Moore, Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health

Associate Professor Philip Ryan, Associate Professor, Department of Public Health

Dr Michael Davies, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Areas of interest:

Social epidemiology; life course research; women's health issues; the role of individual choice in fertility behaviour

Background

Having worked as a physiotherapist for a number of years, in 2002 Emily commenced full-time employment at the Centre for Allied Health Evidence (University of South Australia). Since this time she has undertaken considerable research and consultancy activities both through her work and through the completion of her MPH dissertation. These activities include: a longitudinal investigation into back pain in children and adolescents; the trialling of Virtual Reality therapy as a pain modification technique for post-surgical children; and a national investigation into hospital discharge planning of asthmatic patients. Four peer-reviewed papers on which Emily is the first author, as well as a number of reports and conference presentations have been generated from this work. In 2004 Emily worked for three months in Sichuan Province, China as an AusAID Youth Ambassador for Development in which she mentored AusAID project teams in project evaluation skills. Emily continues part-time work as an antenatal educator at the Women's and Children's Hospital as well as tutoring within the Department of Public Health, University of Adelaide, throughout her PhD studies.

Membership of Professional Organisations

Public Health Association of Australia

Australasian Epidemiological Association

Australian Health Promotion Association

Women's Health Network Australia