Rate My Professor St George

Dr Jennifer St George is a Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences with the University of Newcastle's School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. She earned her PhD in educational psychology from the University of Newcastle in 2010 through a mixed-methods doctoral study, receiving the Newcastle Institute of Education Thesis Prize and the Callaway Doctoral Award from the Australian Society for Music Education. Her research career began as a qualitative research assistant at the Family Action Centre in the Faculty of Health and Medicine, where she collaborated with Associate Professor Richard Fletcher on projects exploring fathers' roles in family life, child wellbeing, and father-inclusive practices in human services, including the design of an observation tool for father-child rough-and-tumble play interactions. In 2015, she was appointed Senior Lecturer in Family Studies, advancing to Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences in 2022 within the Fathers & Families Research Programme. She supervises higher degree research candidates, excels in NVivo qualitative analysis software, reviews journals in family studies and child development fields, and supports researchers internationally in Canada and the USA. Her research specializations encompass parenting processes, father engagement in child development for ages 0-5, rough-and-tumble play's physiological, neurological, and behavioral impacts, perinatal paternal depression, and service provision for fathers. Methodological expertise includes qualitative, observational, and mixed-methods approaches.

Dr St George's extensive publications feature over 51 journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers, including 'Rough and tumble play quality: Theoretical foundations for a new measure of father–child interaction' (2013), 'Measurement of father–child rough‐and‐tumble play and its relations to child behavior' (2017), 'A systematic review of father–child play interactions and the impacts on child development' (2021), 'DADDY'S FUNNY! Fathers' playfulness with young children' (2022), and 'Rough-and-Tumble Play' (2020). She has secured $4,989,307 in grants across 17 projects and supervised completions for seven Master of Clinical Psychology students. Awards include the Australian Postgraduate Award (2012) and participation in the University’s ThinkWell Early and Mid-Career Women’s Development Program (2018). She co-convenes the Australian Fatherhood Research Symposium (since 2018), serves on iDADS (since 2016), and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the 10 to Men Study (since 2019). Her contributions advance father-inclusive practices, influencing initiatives like SMS4dads and global understanding of paternal roles in early child development.