Donnah Anderson

Professors and Lecturers

Dr Donnah Anderson

PhD; BA Hons (Psychology); Dip. Prof. Couns

Senior Lecturer
Port Macquarie
Building 801

Dr Donnah Anderson is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Psychology at Charles Sturt University, Port Macquarie. Donnah’s research takes an interdisciplinary approach that bridges psychology, sociology and education. She has a particular interest in children and young people’s rights, voice and wellbeing and has worked on a range of collaborative mixed-method research projects with local, national and international scope.

Donnah is a passionate teacher who delivers undergraduate subjects in psychology – including Research Methods and Statistics and other psychology subjects. She enjoys helping students overcome their fear of statistics and also supervises honours, masters and PhD students in their psychology research projects. Donnah is strongly committed to her students’ learning and their personal and professional growth.

Teaching

  • PSY201 and PSY451: Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology
  • PSY204: Psychological Testing
  • PSY301: Advanced Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology

Research

Donnah’s research focuses on children and young people’s rights, mental health and wellbeing, and the adults who work with or care for them. She has an interest in attitude theories applied to social settings, such as children, teachers, and parents in schools. She has research experience in attitudes towards teaching students with ADHD and ASD.

After completing her PhD at the University of New England, NSW in 2012, Donnah held a research position at the Centre for Children and Young People at Southern Cross University for three years where she worked with an interdisciplinary team. Donnah continues her work with the CCYP team on several research projects, including those below:

  • 2021-2024: Success at School and Beyond: Improving Participation and Wellbeing for Every Student. NSW Department of Education’s Strategic Research Fund.
  • 2018-2022: Beyond Safety: Ethical Practice Involving Children (the EPIC project). ARC Discovery (DP180100465).
  • 2014-2017: Improving wellbeing through student participation at school. ARC Linkage: (LP 140100540).
  • 2012-2014: Improving approaches to wellbeing in schools: What role does recognition play? ARC Linkage(LP 110200656).
  • 2012-2014: Ethical Research Involving Children. A key output of this project is an International Charter for Ethical Research Involving Children, including a print-based compendium and website (www.childethics.com).

Research Supervision:

Donnah also supervises honours, masters and PhD students in quantitative projects in psychology. Please email doanderson@csu.edu.au for inquiries.