About
Prof Janet Boddy is a Professor of Child, Youth and Family Studies at the University of Sussex's School of Education and Social Work. She also holds an Adjunct Professorship at OsloMet University's Childhood, Family and Welfare Division. Her research focuses on family dynamics, child welfare systems, and qualitative methodologies, with a particular emphasis on marginalized communities and care-experienced young people.
Education: BSc Psychology (University of Glasgow), PhD (UCL Institute of Child Health). Professional roles include Deputy Head of the School of Education and Social Work and Founding Director of the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth at Sussex. She co-leads the Family Research Network and serves on multiple advisory boards, including the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory.
Research Interests: Family policy, child protection, care leavers' outcomes, qualitative longitudinal methods, and cross-national studies. Recent work includes evaluations of UK social care innovations and international studies on young adults' transitions from care.
Key Awards: 2020 Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Grants/Projects: National Evaluation of A Better Start (2015-2025), Care Leavers 10 Years On (Ireland), and multi-country studies on youth resilience. Supervised PhD research on political participation among care-experienced young people.
Labs/Teams: Co-founded the Centre for Innovation and Research in Childhood and Youth (2016-2019) and collaborates across institutions globally.
