Dr Lesley-Anne Ey

Dr Ey has three key research strands; (1) Harmful Sexual Behaviour, (2) Impact of Sexulised Media and Media Literacy, and (3) Bullying in Early Childhood. Dr Ey’s research is child-centric and aims to support the wellbeing of children. Her early research focused on ‘Young children’s engagement with contemporary music media and their gender role and self-identity development’ (Doctorate 2014).  Her research has progressed to exploring children’s harmful sexual behaviour in education settings, with the aim of supporting teachers to effectively recognise and respond to such behaviour; and to inform teacher training and curriculum.  Dr Ey’s current research also explores and seeks to promote an understanding of bullying amongst young children, their parents and early childhood teachers.  She is a full member of the Research in Educational and Social Inclusion Concentration (RESI) and an affiliate member of the Australian Centre for Child Protection (ACCP). She has served on the University of South Australia Research Ethics Committee and was the Research Ethics Advisor in Education Futures (2022-2021).

Harmful Sexual Behaviour

Dr Ey’s research related to harmful sexual behaviour informs state/territory and national policy, procedure, training/professional development and curriculum. She is an executive invited member of the National Clinical Reference Group on Harmful Sexual Behaviour, National Office for Child Safety to inform the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 (National Strategy) and a member of the South Australian harmful sexual behaviour working group run by the Commissioner for Children and Young People (SA).  Dr Ey works closely with the Department for Education (SA) and has informed the following curriculum, procedure and training materials (a) Child Protection: Keeping Safe Curriculum, (b)  Sexual Behaviour in Children and Young People Procedure and Guideline, and (c)  Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care. She also works closely with the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and is currently informing The Australia's Biggest Child Safety Lesson’ (ABCSL) and the E-Safety resource focusing on educating young people about online grooming. Recently she co-developed training modules for Australian educators on harmful sexual behaviour for TES (UK). 

Her recent projects include 'Can administrative records inform estimates of the extent and nature of harmful sexual behaviours', funded by the Daniel Morecombe Foundation (2023-2024), Teachers understanding of problematic sexual behaviour and their training needs (2022-2023)’ funded by Catholic Education WA; 'PAST Evaluation of services for children's and young people's harmful sexual behaviour' (2022-2023), funded by Tasmania Department for Communities;  'Protecting children online: Investigation of suspects’ opening chat grooming language and interactions with police decoys (2021-2023), funded by Westpac; 'Parents' knowledge, views and experiences of service responses to children's harmful sexual behaviours'  (2021-2022), funded by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation; ‘Children’s problematic sexual behaviour in schools: Identifying and addressing collaborative responses to incidents’ (2021-22), funded by Channel 7 Children’s Research Foundation; ‘Service models for children under 10 with problematic or harmful sexual behaviour’ (2018), funded by Sax Institute, and ‘A public health approach to dealing with sexting’ (2015-16), funded by University of South Australia. Dr Ey was seconded by ACCP to work on the projects 'Enhancing Statewide Responses to Harmful Sexual Behaviours WA' funded by the WA Department of Communities (2021-2023), and 'Enhancing Statewide Responses to Harmful Sexual Behaviours SA', funded by the SA Department for Child Protection (2021-2023).

Dr Ey authored ‘Harmful sexual behaviours in young children and pre-teens: An educational issue’: Routledge. She has provided expert advice at the Harmful sexual behaviour seminar, hosted by the Commissioner for Children and Young People Western Australia. Dr Ey’s expertise has also been sought to review Child Protection Policies and Procedures for schools and out of school care organisations. Dr Ey also writes and reviews articles on Harmful Sexual Behaviour for the Raising Children Network.

Impact of Sexualised Media and Media Literacy

Dr Ey’s research focuses on safeguarding children through primary prevention in which she brings an educative lens. Her research  explores the impact of sexualised media on children and protective education, including media literacy. She is a member of the American Psychological Association's Division 46 (Media Psychology & Technology) Task Force on the Sexualization of Popular Music (2016-current) where she contributes her expertise on sexualisation of media, online child sexual exploitation, online child sexual abuse and children’s online HSB (e.g., sexting) and media literacy. As part of Division 46, she has contributed to the ‘Report of the Division 46 Task Force on the sexualization of popular music (2018) and the development of an educative website https://collegemusiclit.weebly.com/ , and four journal articles. Recently, members of Division 46 edited a research book 'Getting the best from the digital world: Media literacy across the lifespan’ Cambridge Scholars Publishing (2024) which Dr Ey wrote two chapters. 

Bullying in Early Childhood  

Dr Ey's research explore teachers'. parents' and childrens' understanding of bullying as well as teacher and parent perspectives and responses. She led  'Adults understand and perspectives of bullying in early childhood' (2019-2021) and 'Co-creating anti-bullying interventions with early childhood educators (CABI-ECE):  Supporting Early childhood educators to address bullying in junior primary classes (2018), funded by the Organisation Mondiale Pour L’ Èducation Préscolaire (OMEP). In 2019, she extended this research and was Lead Chief Investigator on the project Parent’s and Teacher’s, of children aged 4-10 years, understanding and perspectives of bullying. Dr Ey was also a Chief investigator on ‘Australia-India Anti-bullying research collaboration (AIARC): Facilitating intellectual and scholarly exchange about school bullying through a cross-cultural network project’ (2014-15) funded by the University of South Australia.

Awards

Dr Ey has received a number of academic distinctions including the 'Excellence in Research Award: Mid Career Researcher' (2022) (Education Futurers UniSA);  Research Publication Excellence Award (2020) and the Excellence in Research Award (2020) Centre for Research in Education and Social Inclusion (UniSA); ’Early Career Researcher Award (2018) and a Mid-Career Teacher Commendation (2018) the Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences. In the same year she received an Honourable Mention in Education for Sustainability from OMEP for her research ‘Supporting early childhood educators to address bullying in junior primary classes through the co-creation of anti-bullying interventions and resources’. Dr Ey has previously received the Pro Vice Chancellor Early Career Researcher Networking award at the University of South Australia (2015), and the Outstanding Achievements in International Engagement Award from the project ‘Australian/Indian Anti-bullying Research Collaboration’ (2015).

Teaching

Dr Lesley-anne Ey lectures in Educational Psychology and Child Protection in the Master of Teaching programs. Before undertaking her PhD she taught in Preschools and Primary schools across a variety of government and independent sectors.

Member of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion 

Member of the Australian Centre for Child Protection

Member - National Clinical Reference Group for Harmful Sexual Behaviours (HSB) under the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse

SA harmful sexual behaviour working group, Commissioner for Children and Young People SA:

Executive Committee Member of Early Childhood Australia (ECA), South Australia

Chair – Margaret Trembath Research Scholarship Committee  - Early Childhood Australia

Chair - Andrea McGuffog Research Scholarship Committee – Early Childhood Australia 

Committee member (OMEP) Organisation Mondiale pour l’Education Préscolaire (World Organisation for Early Childhood Education and Care), South Australian Branch  

Member of the Society for Media Psychology and Technology, Division 46 of the American Psychological Association

Member of the Australian Human Development Association

Writer/Reviewer for the Raising Children Network

Reviewer – Journal of Early Childhood Research

Reviewer – Journal of Child Sexual Abuse

Reviewer - Journal of Sex Education

Reviewer – Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media

Reviewer/Advisor - Department for Education South Australia  - Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum, Sexual behaviour in children and young people procedure and guideline, Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect Training 

Reviewer/Advisor - Daniel Morcombe Foundation - Australia's Biggest Child Safety Lesson and e-safety resources 

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (with Honors) University of South Australia