Peter Hayes is a PhD candidate in the School of Medicine and Psychology at the Australian National University, undertaking a mixed methods metascientific study of how researchers identify and report limitations in empirical research on Indigenous child and adolescent development and wellbeing. His thesis examines the methodological literature and publications arising from Footprints in Time: the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), combining systematic analysis of the published corpus with interviews with methodological experts and specification curve reanalyses that test how analytic decisions shape published findings. The aim is to move limitation reporting from a discursive convention towards an empirically grounded practice that strengthens research credibility, thereby supporting cumulative progress in this field of research.
Alongside his PhD, Peter is Research Manager (Senior Research Fellow) at the Westerman Jilya Institute for Indigenous Mental Health, where he is a Chief Investigator on an MRFF funded project developing culturally safe approaches to assessing attachment with Aboriginal families. His broader work at Jilya spans the indigenising of psychology curriculums, suicide prevention research including the validation of culturally informed psychological screening tools for Aboriginal young people, and the evaluation and research program supporting Jilya’s national scholarship program for Indigenous psychology students.