Rate My Professor Sally Staton

Associate Professor Sally Staton serves as a Senior Research Fellow in the Science of Learning Research Centre at the Queensland Brain Institute and an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow leading the Early Childhood (Care and Education) Research Group at the Institute for Social Science Research, both at the University of Queensland. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Developmental Psychology, Graduate Diploma in Psychology, Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Honours), and Bachelor of Creative Industries (Dance) from Queensland University of Technology. Her career includes prior positions as Research Associate and Research Assistant at QUT. Staton employs a range of methodologies, including randomised controlled trials, longitudinal studies of over 2000 children, in vivo and video observations, physiological measures like actigraphy, cortisol, and heart rate variability, and qualitative approaches involving interviews with children, educators, and parents.

Staton's research investigates the role of early education and care settings in promoting young children’s social-emotional, cognitive, and physical development. Her expertise encompasses sleep health, napping transitions, mealtime practices, screen use, challenging behaviors, and quality assessment in early childhood education. Prominent publications include "Napping, development and health from 0 to 5 years: a systematic review" (Thorpe et al., 2015), "Many naps, one nap, none: A systematic review and meta-analysis of napping patterns in children 0–12 years" (Staton et al., 2020), "Early childhood screen use contexts and cognitive and psychosocial outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis" (Mallawaarachchi et al., 2024), "The when and what of measuring ECE quality: Analysis of variation in the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) across the ECE day" (Thorpe et al., 2020), and "Sleep well, feel well and vice versa? A meta-analysis of daily bidirectional within-person associations between sleep and affect" (Bourke et al., 2026). Awards received include Queensland Young Tall Poppy Scientist (2016), UQ Partners in Research Excellence (2019), and ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellowship. Her research has shaped Australian national policies on sleep and rest in childcare, informed government tools like the Assisting Observations Toolkit, and reached broad audiences through media and professional development programs.