Sarah conducts research on the causes and consequences of variability in parenting and children’s adjustment, with a particular focus on outcomes associated with co-parenting in diverse family forms.

Sarah's ESRC-funded PhD examined the transition to parenthood in heterosexual couples, with a particular focus on the impact of expectant parents' thoughts and feelings about their unborn infant on their representations of and interactions with their infant. Her subsequent post-doctoral research explored parent-child relationship quality and child development in new family forms (e.g., those created through assisted reproductive technologies). Following this, Sarah gained an ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellowship to examine parent and children's experiences of shared parenting arrangements post separation and divorce. Sarah's previous research also included studies of pre-adolescent adjustment and assisting with the creation of the Brief Early Skills and Support Index (aka BESSI), a ‘school-readiness’ questionnaire.