Dr Laetitia Coles
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Queensland Brain Institute
Researcher biography
Dr Laetitia Coles is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow within the Science of Learning Lab at the Queensland Brain Institute, led by Laureate Prof Karen Thorpe. Dr Coles is a mixed-methods researcher and is currently the lead in the Workforces component of the Thriving Queensland Kids Brain Builders Initiative. She has a strong commitment to research that helps improve understandings of gender, work, and care within the family and within the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector.
Dr Coles' research focuses on the ways in which gender, work and family policy, and work-place practices (a) frame concepts of care (b) underpin gendered labour supply within the ECEC setting, and (c) underpin and inform the decisions families make with regards to engagement in paid and unpaid labour, and has a passion for improving the working conditions of those who are caring for our youngest members of society.
Dr Coles has a strong and developing track record in research translation, including the development and delivery of reports for government and non-government organisations.
Dr Coles completed her PhD in Sociology in 2020, looking at long work hours and fathers' engagement with children and caregiving – particularly focusing on the factors that facilitate participation in caregiving.
Publications
Book Chapters
Cooke, Emma, Coles, Laetitia, Thorpe, Karen and Houen, Sandy (2024). Crystallising the everyday emotional work of women working in childcare during Covid-19. Departing radically in academic writing: alternative approaches to writing and methods in qualitative research. (pp. 15-25) edited by Elizabeth Mackinlay and Karen Madden. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003360766-2
Coles, Laetitia, Cooke, Emma and Chawla, Jasneek (2023). Confronting meanings of motherhood in neoliberal Australia: six crystallised case studies. Biographical Research and the Meanings of Mothering. (pp. 158-193) edited by Lyudmila Nurse, Lisa Moran and Kateřina Sidiropulu-Janků. Bristol, United Kingdom: Policy Press. doi: 10.56687/9781447365648-013
Journal Articles
Smith, Imogene, O'Dea, Gypsy, Demmer, David Hilton, Youssef, George, Craigie, Georgia, Francis, Lauren M., Coles, Laetitia, D'Souza, Levita, Cain, Kat, Knight, Tess, Olsson, Craig A. and Macdonald, Jacqui A. (2023). Associations between unintended fatherhood and paternal mental health problems: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 339, 22-32. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.06.065
Cooke, Emma, Coles, Laetitia, Staton, Sally, Thorpe, Karen and Chawla, Jasneek (2023). Communicating the complex lives of families that include a child with Down syndrome. Health Sociology Review, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-23. doi: 10.1080/14461242.2022.2161405
Sullivan, Victoria, Coles, Laetitia, Xu, Yuwei and Thorpe, Karen (2022). Men times ten: does the presence of more men support inclusion of male educators in early childhood education and care?. Gender and Education, 35 (1), 18-36. doi: 10.1080/09540253.2022.2137106
Coles, Laetitia, Johnstone, Melissa, Pattinson, Cassandra, Thorpe, Karen, Van Halen, Olivia, Zheng, Zhaoxi, Bayliss, Olivia, Lakeman, Nicole, Western, Mark, Povey, Jenny and Staton, Sally (2022). Identifying factors for poorer educational outcomes that may be exacerbated by
COVID
‐19: A systematic review focussing on at‐risk school children and adolescents. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 58 (1), 13-40. doi: 10.1002/ajs4.236
Cooke, Emma, Coles, Laetitia, Clarke, Andrew, Thorpe, Karen and Staton, Sally (2022). Discarded data: an Ahmedian engagement with young children’s gendered accounts of violence and power. Gender and Education, 34 (7), 1-17. doi: 10.1080/09540253.2022.2078795
Coles, Laetitia, Thorpe, Karen, Smith, Simon, Hewitt, Belinda, Ruppanner, Leah, Bayliss, Olivia, O'Flaherty, Martin and Staton, Sally (2022). Children's sleep and fathers' health and wellbeing: a systematic review. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 61 101570, 101570. doi: 10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101570
Sullivan, Victoria, Coles, Laetitia, Xu, Yuwei, Perales, Francisco and Thorpe, Karen (2020). Beliefs and attributions: insider accounts of men’s place in early childhood education and care. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 21 (2), 126-137. doi: 10.1177/1463949120929462
Staton, S., Coles, L., Zheng, Z. and Thorpe, K. (2020). COVID-19: Giving the Gift of Family Time. Report from the Understanding the Social Impacts of COVID-19 Study. Contact Magazine.
Coles, Laetitia, Hewitt, Belinda and Martin, Bill (2018). Contemporary fatherhood: social, demographic and attitudinal factors associated with involved fathering and long work hours. Journal of Sociology, 54 (4), 591-608. doi: 10.1177/1440783317739695
Brady, Michelle, Stevens, Emily, Coles, Laetitia, Zadoroznyj, Maria and Martin, Bill (2016). "You can spend time ... but not necessarily be bonding with them": Australian fathers' constructions and enactments of infant bonding. Journal of Social Policy, 46 (1), 69-90. doi: 10.1017/S0047279416000374
Rose, Judy, Brady, Michelle, Yerkes, Mara A. and Coles, Laetitia (2015). ‘Sometimes they just want to cry for their mum’: couples’ negotiations and rationalisations of gendered divisions in infant care. Journal of Family Studies, 21 (1), 38-56. doi: 10.1080/13229400.2015.1010264
Conference Papers
Coles, L., Sullivan, V., Xu, Y. and Thorpe K. (2022). Men in the centres working in the margins: reinforcing and challenging gender stereotypes in ECEC. Australian Association of Research in Education (AARE), Adelaide, 27 November-1 December 2022.
Zheng, Zhaoxi, Clarke, Andrew, Coles, Laetitia and Staton, Sally (2021). Reconceptualising Home and Ontological Security in COVID-19 Times. The Australian Sociological Association 2021 Annual Conference (TASA Thematic Week), Online, 22-26 November 2021.
Coles, L., Thorpe, K., Smith, S., Hewitt, B., Ruppanner, L., Bayliss, O., O’Flaherty, M. and Staton, S. (2021). Children’s sleep and fathers’ health and wellbeing: a systematic review. 32nd annual scientific meeting of Australasian Sleep Association (ASA) & Australian and New Zealand Sleep Science Association (ANZSSA), Online, 10 - 13 October 2021. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/sleepadvances/zpab014.072
Coles, Laetitia, Allen, Alicia, Westwood, Emily, Staton, Sally, Oakes, Candice, Hewitt, Belinda, Thorpe, Karen and Ruppanner, Leah (2019). Children’s sleep and fathers’ lives in the early years: a systematic review. Australian Father Research Consortium Symposium, Melbourne, VIC Australia, 2-3 May 2019.
Thorpe, K., Smith, S., Mamun, A., Staton, S., Beatton, T., Heussler, H., LeBourgeois, M., Blair, P., Coles, L., Oaks, C. and Sinclair, G. (2019). Many naps, one nap, none: tracking the developmental significance of sleep transition in early childhood. 15th World Sleep Congress, Vancouver, Canada, 20-25 September 2019. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2019.11.1071
Coles, Laetitia, Hewitt, Belinda and Martin, Bill (2015). Fatherhood in the 21st Century: who are the fathers who combine long work hours and caring for children?. The Annual Conference of The Australian Sociological Association, Cairns, QLD Australia, 23-26 November 2015. Cairns, QLD Australia: James Cook University.
Generic Document
O'Flaherty, M., Thorpe, K., Staton, S., Coles, L., Povey, J. and Rankin, P. (2019). Building Capacity in Australian Parents (BCAP) (Trial Interim Report). Department of Social Services, Australian Government.
Research Reports
Staton, Sally, Pattinson, Cassandra, Houen, Sandy, Coles, Laetitia, Westwood, Emily, Cooke, Emma, Searle, Bonnie-Ria and Thorpe, Karen (2022). KindyLinQ Program Pilot: Pilot evaluation report and executive summary. Online: Evidence for Learning.
Pattinson, Cassandra, Staton, Sally, Tomaszewski, Wojtek, Bayliss, Olivia, Coles, Laetitia and Johnstone, Melissa (2020). Learning through COVID-19: Maximising educational outcomes for Australia’s children and young people experiencing disadvantage - Pillar 1: Technical Supporting Report 3 of 7. The Learning through COVID-19 Study St Lucia, QLD Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.
Coles, Laetitia, Staton, Sally, Pattinson, Cassandra, Cleary, Anne, Zheng, Zhaoxi, Van Halen, Olivia and Thorpe, Karen (2020). Learning through COVID-19: Maximising educational outcomes for Australia’s children and young people experiencing disadvantage - Pillar 1: Technical Supporting Report 1 of 7. St Lucia, QLD Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.
Coles, Laetitia, Staton, Sally, Pattinson, Cassandra, Zheng, Zhaoxi, Inch, Zeb, Johnstone, Melissa and Thorpe, Karen (2020). Learning through COVID-19: Maximising educational outcomes for Australia’s children and young people experiencing disadvantage - Pillar 1: Technical Supporting Report 2 of 7. St Lucia, QLD Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.
Coles, L., Staton, S., Thorpe, K., Van Os, D., Westwood, E. and Menner, R. (2019). Early childhood data analysis report. Brisbane, QLD Australia: The Front Project.
Hewitt, Belinda, Baird, Marian, Baxter, Janeen, Brady, Michelle, Coles, Laetitia, Dickenson, Jane, Strazdins, Lyndall, Whitehouse, Gillian, Xiang, Ning and Yerkes, Mara (2017). Millennium Mums Report, waves 1-5. Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.
Martin, Bill, Yerkes, Mara, Hewitt, Belinda, Baird, M., Jones, Andrew Eric, Rose, Emily, Rose, Judith, Davis, K., Coles, Laetitia and Xiang, Ning (2013). Paid parental leave evaluation: Phase 2 report. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
Theses
Coles, Laetitia (2020). Determinants of participation in childcare amongst fathers who work very long hours. PhD Thesis, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/96f9f41
Coles, Laetitia (2012). Adolscents' participation in volunteering : a study of Queensland school students. Honours Thesis, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland.