Martin O'Flaherty

Dr. Martin O'Flaherty is a Research Fellow at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences within the Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland. He is also an Affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course, located in the Institute for Social Science Research. His work focuses on the intersection of family, health, and disadvantage over the life course, with particular emphasis on children with disabilities and their families.

Dr. O'Flaherty holds a Bachelor (Honours) of Arts and a PhD, both from The University of Queensland. His doctoral work focused on family formation patterns and physical health in Australia from a life course perspective.

His research centers on using advanced quantitative methods to unlock causal and longitudinal perspectives on important social problems. Recent work has investigated patterns and determinants of children's and adolescents' time-use, including for adolescents with disability and LGBTQ adolescents. He has led research using machine learning methodology to study heterogeneous effects of teenage motherhood on later life mental health. His current research primarily focuses on understanding the nature, causes of, and solutions to poverty and financial insecurity among children with disabilities and their families.

Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on disability studies, life course perspectives, and global health equity. His work spans multiple methodologies including causal mediation analysis, machine learning applications, and compositional data analysis. The research consistently addresses health disparities, with particular attention to vulnerable populations including children with disabilities, adolescents from low-income backgrounds, and communities in resource-limited settings like rural Ghana.

Dr. O'Flaherty has made significant contributions to the evaluation of nationally significant social policy, often working with the Department of Social Services. He designed the impact evaluation for the $90 million Try, Test, and Learn Fund and led the evaluation of the Building Capacity in Australia's Parents trial and the National Community Awareness Raising initiative. He is the quantitative lead for the Community Refugee Integration and Sponsorship Pilot, funded by the Department of Home Affairs.

As a supervisor, Dr. O'Flaherty has guided PhD students through research on community healthcare in Ghana, multigenerational health inequality in Australia, and adolescent motherhood in low- and middle-income countries. His current supervision focuses on how children's behavior problems affect parental health behaviors in Australia.

His work has appeared in leading international journals including Demography, Child Development, and The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, demonstrating the interdisciplinary nature and high impact of his research across health, social policy, and demographic fields.