Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Dr Allen is an Associate Professor and Educational and Developmental Psychologist at Monash University, and an Honorary Principal Fellow at the Centre for Wellbeing Science, University of Melbourne. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Educational and Developmental Psychologist and founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Belonging and Human Connection. As a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, she serves as Treasurer of the Positive Psychology Interest group.
Dr Allen’s mission is to signal and accentuate the importance of belonging in day-to-day life, and to better understand the mechanics of how it can be enhanced across the lifespan, but particularly in educational and organisational contexts. Her work is based on the need to belong as a powerful driver of motivation and a fundamental pillar of good physical and mental health. In a world of rising rates of loneliness and social isolation, a comprehensive understanding of belonging has never been more important.
Dr. Allen has been recognised by The Australian as one of Australia's top researchers and ranked by their independent data-science partner, The League of Scholars as Best In Field (2022). On an international level, she is a frequently cited author in the field of school belonging (e.g., Google Scholar, Web of Science, Scopus) and was listed in Elsevier’s top 2% of scientists' annual world-wide analyses for 2021. Dr. Allen has consistently contributed to influential work on student belonging. She has also been recognised by the Journal of University Learning and Teaching Practice for “most influential paper of 2021” (co-authored with Trice, Baumeister & Crawford) and holds the most-cited, paper on school belonging published in the last five years – a work that identifies core factors for fostering school belonging (co-authored with Kern, Waters, Vella-Brodrick & Hattie). Her monograph, The Psychology of Belonging (Routledge, 2020) has been translated into Serbian, Indonesian, and Arabic.Her book, The Psychology of Belonging (Routledge, 2020) has been translated into Serbian, Indonesian, and Arabic and won the 2022 Gold Award in the Nonfiction Book Authors’ Association Awards.
Dr. Allen values global networks and partnerships, recognising that these are essential to ensuring that research is translated in a way that is practical, usable, and socially beneficial. In 2018, she founded and now co-directs the Global Belonging Collaborative, a large transdisciplinary team dedicated to developing the field of belonging through the dissemination of research, engagement in translational projects, and the pooling of international expertise. Among other things, the collaborative includes a publicly accessible belonging metric repository. In 2022, Dr Allen joined the M&M'S FUNd Advisory Council, alongside other belonging, diversity and inclusion advocates and experts, to assist the iconic brand in achieving their innovative vision of increasing a sense of belonging for 10 million people around the world by 2025.
Research interests
Dr Allen’s core work is in direct response to the widely reported global decline in belonging, particularly for students. Her research traces the further deterioration of belonging following COVID-19, and its strong associations with mental illness (both in adolescence and adulthood), wellbeing and academic outcomes, demonstrating that student belonging is an important problem to address. With the study of belonging core to Dr. Allen’s research priorities, her projects have built a conceptual and empirical understanding of what it means to belong. Continued work in this space is both critical and timely.
More broadly, Dr Allen holds research interests in the areas of working with schools and wellbeing. She has expertise in statistical synthesis.
Monash teaching commitment
Dr Allen is the Chief Examiner and Unit Co-Ordinator of EDF4599 - Positive psychology in professional practice within the Graduate Diploma of Professional Psychology. Dr Allen supervises graduate research students in the Master of Educational and Developmental Psychology.
Consulting
Dr Allen is available for consultantion, belonging assessment, and contract research in the areas of belonging and wellbeing.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Educational Psychology, PhD
2011 → 2015
Educational Psychology, Masters
2005 → 2008
External positions
Treasurer, Positive Psychology Interest Group, Australian Psychological Society
2022 → …
Board Director, Early Childhood Intervention Australia (Vic/Tas)
2018 → 2021
Board Director, The Homeless Project
2018 → …
Treasurer, Australian Psychological Society
2012 → 2020
Senior Honorary Fellow, University of Melbourne
2012 → …
Research area keywords
- Belonging
- School belonging
- Positive Psychology
- Social and emotional learning
- social inclusion
- relationships
- Enhancing health and wellbeing
- Educating for diversity and inclusion
- Transforming teaching and learning
Network
-
Preparing for Parenting in a Post-Pandemic world: School seminars to skill parents and teachers to support the wellbeing, behaviour and self-regulation of students
Boyle, C., Saunders, M. & Allen, K.
Australian Government Community Grants Hub
28/02/23 → 28/02/24
Project: Research
-
Student solutions to rebuilding belonging in schools post COVID-19: An Appreciative Inquiry
Allen, K., Berger, E., Grove, C., Patlamazoglou, L., Reupert, A., Gamble, N., Wurf, G. & May, F.
26/07/20 → …
Project: Research
-
Academic motivation and stress-related growth upon returning to school following Covid-19 lockdown: Can students grow following Covid-19 adversity?
Allen, K., Waters, L. E. & Arslan, G.
1/07/20 → …
Project: Research
-
School belonging and mental health outcomes in adulthood
Allen, K., Berger, E., Patlamazoglou, L., Reupert, A., Wurf, G. & May, F.
12/05/20 → …
Project: Research
-
Belonging to University During Covid
Allen, K., Pahlevan Sharif, S., Arslan, G. & Sharif Nia, H.
29/03/20 → …
Project: Research
-
The Psychology of Belonging
Allen, K., 2021, 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge. 128 p. (The Psychology of Everything)Research output: Book/Report › Book › Research › peer-review
21 Citations (Scopus) -
Boosting School Belonging: Practical Strategies to Help Adolescents Feel Like They Belong at School
Allen, K-A. & Kern, P., 2020, 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge. 203 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book › Other › peer-review
8 Citations (Scopus) -
School belonging policy
Allen, K-A., Gray, D. L., Arslan, G., Riley, K., Vella-Brodrick, D. & Waters, L., 2021, Building Better Schools with Evidence-based Policy: Adaptable Policy for Teachers and School Leaders. Allen, K-A., Reupert, A. & Oades, L. (eds.). 1st ed. Abingdon UK: Routledge, p. 139-146 8 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Other › peer-review
Open AccessFile2 Citations (Scopus) -
Pathways to Belonging: Contemporary Research in School Belonging
Allen, K-A. (ed.) & Boyle, C. (ed.), 24 Sep 2018, 1st ed. The Netherlands: Brill. 230 p.Research output: Book/Report › Edited Book › peer-review
4 Citations (Scopus) -
School Belonging in Adolescents: Theory, research, and practice
Allen, K-A. & Kern, M. L., 2017, 1st ed. Singapore Singapore: Springer. 137 p. (SpringerBriefs in Psychology)(School Phychology)Research output: Book/Report › Book › Research › peer-review
Prizes
-
Advancing Women's Research Success Award
Allen, Kelly-Ann (Recipient), 2020
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
-
Association of Psychological Science Rising Star
Allen, Kelly-Ann (Recipient), 2022
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
-
Australian Postgraduate Award
Allen, Kelly-Ann (Recipient), 2011
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
-
Awarded by Department of Education and Training, Early Learning and Development Reform Branch for project "Improving Child Social and Emotional Development with Therapy Robot Play"
Kewalramani, S. (Recipient) & Allen, Kelly-Ann (Recipient), 19 Aug 2021
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
-
Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology
Allen, Kelly-Ann (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
-
Australian Psychological Society (APS) College of Educational and Developmental Psychologists Annual Conference 2023
Kelly-Ann Allen (Session chair), Emily Berger (Speaker), Joe Coyne (Speaker), Simone Gindidis (Speaker), Chelsea Hyde (Speaker), Kathryn Kallady (Speaker), Zoe Morris (Speaker), Camelia Wilkinson (Speaker) & Gerald Wurf (Speaker)
17 Feb 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
-
The Power of Student Belonging
Kelly-Ann Allen (Contributor)
Nov 2022Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
-
The importance of school belonging for learning and wellbeing: Perspectives from neuroscience and psychology.
Kelly-Ann Allen (Contributor) & Rick van der Zwan (Contributor)
18 Mar 2022Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
-
The science behind school belonging and why every school needs to make it a priority.
Kelly-Ann Allen (Contributor)
22 Mar 2022Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
-
Education State Principal’s Conference
Kelly-Ann Allen (Organiser)
30 May 2022 → 31 May 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
Press/Media
-
Teaching profession becoming a hard sell
Fiona Longmuir, Lucas Walsh, Beatriz Gallo Cordoba, Kelly-Ann Allen & Michael Phillips
6/05/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Article/Feature
-
A Conversation About… The Importance of Belonging for Young People
15/02/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Blogs, Podcasts and Social Media › Podcasts
-
-
Australian teachers are dissatisfied with their jobs but their sense of professional belonging is strong
Kelly-Ann Allen, Fiona Longmuir, Michael Phillips & Beatriz Gallo Cordoba
27/01/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Article/Feature
-
The psychology of belonging and connection
14/01/23
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Profile/Interview