Ann Buchanan (academic)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ann Buchanan

Ann Hermione Baring
Born(1941-05-21)21 May 1941
England
Died13 February 2022(2022-02-13) (aged 80)
NationalityBritish
SpouseAlistair John Buchanan
ChildrenCatherine Ann Louise Buchanan
Teresa Margaret Buchanan
Helen Hermione Buchanan
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Bath
University of Southampton
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Oxford
Doctoral studentsHeidi Stöckl [1]

Ann Hermione Buchanan, MBE, FASC (née Baring, 21 May 1941 – 13 February 2022) was a British researcher, author and academic. She was Senior Research Associate in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention and Professor Emeritus of Social Work at Oxford University. She was also a Supernumerary Fellow of St. Hilda's College since 1994.

Buchanan's research was focused on studies on children who were looked after, child protection, the impact of divorce, fathering, grandparenting, child-well-being and children at risk of exclusion.

Buchanan was awarded the MBE in 2012 for services to Social Science.[2] She was a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science.[3]

Early life and education

Buchanan was born in England on 21 May 1941, and raised in Scotland, daughter of Raymond Alexander Baring and wife Margaret Fleetwood Campbell-Preston. She was sister of the 3rd, paternal niece of the 2nd and paternal granddaughter of the 1st Baring Baronets, of Nubia House.

On 20 July 1963, she married as his second wife Alistair John Buchanan, son of John James Buchanan and wife, Managing Director of Morgan Grenfell Securities, of whom she had three daughters: Catherine Anne Louise Buchanan on 9 November 1963, Teresa Margaret Buchanan on 10 September 1967 and Helen Hermione Buchanan in 1973.

She received a Diploma in Social Studies in 1968 with Distinction and Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Social Studies from University of Bath and Certificate of Qualification in Social Work. In 1990, she received a Ph.D. in Social Work and Psychology from University of Southampton.[4]

Career

In 1974, Buchanan joined Burderop Hospitals as a Research Assistant to Jack Oliver. She left Burderop Hospitals in 1980 to become a child psychiatric social worker. In 1989 she was appointed a Lecturer at University of Southampton. In 1994, she joined University of Oxford as Lecturer. She was promoted to Professor in 2006. At Oxford she set up the Centre for Research into Parenting and Children at Oxford in 1996 with partners from across the university, with a particular focus on children who were at risk of social exclusion. She served as its Director from 1996 to 2008. She was appointed to the Council of ESRC in 2006 and chaired the Research Ethics Committee and Evaluation Board from 2007 to 2013 and then served on the Council of the National Academy of Social Sciences from 2011 to 2017, serving on their Audit Committee and Publication Committees.[5]

Buchanan was a Trustee of Family Welfare Association from 1999 to 2007, The Baring Foundation from 2002 to 2014;[6] Grandparents Plus from 2012 to 2018 and Oxfordshire Community Foundation from 2004 to 2014.[7]

Research

In 1973, Buchanan worked with Jack Oliver on his studies of severely abusing families – with one family they traced back 7 generations. With his help, she wrote her first book Intergenerational Child Maltreatment: Facts, Fancies and Interventions.[8] They also undertook a study on children in subnormality hospital who had been rendered disabled as a result of child abuse.[9]

As severely abused children ended up in public care, as a social worker, Buchanan was interested in what happened to those children brought up by the public parent. She wrote several papers on this topic.[10] Later at Oxford, Buchanan broadened her research to include all children. For these studies, she used the National Child Development Study (NCDS). Her research on what happened when these children grew up showed that children brought up in care had major mental health and other problems when adult.[11] Two issues emerged from her NCDS work: first, the impact of divorce on children’s outcomes and second, the important role of fathers. This led to studies funded by Nuffield Foundation on divorce and ESRC on fathers.[12] The work on divorce was also influential highlighting court cases where parents were fighting over the custody of children.[13]

By this point, the focus of Buchanan's research was moving onto how to promote child well-being and supportive family relationships. She conducted research on the issues that went wrong in family relationships.[14] Her Centre at Oxford ran seminars every year on ‘Promoting the well-being of children’; two edited volumes emerged from this work.[15] She continued her work on fathering but also began focusing on the impact of grandparents in a child's life. Subsequently, she edited a volume on the role of grandfathers.[16]

In 2013, she co-edited the book Fertility Rates and Population Decline: No Time for Children? with Anna Rotkirch.[17] She then edited the 2016 book, Grandfathers: Global Perspectives with Rotkirch. The book was nominated for a British Academy Peter Townsend award.[18] In 2018, she and Rotkirch edited the book The Role of Grandparents in the 21st Century: Global Perspectives on Changing Roles and Consequences.[19] Her former doctoral students include Heidi Stöckl.[1]

Personal life and death

Buchanan lived at Hill Barn, Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire, in 2003, and died on 13 February 2022, at the age of 80.[20]

Awards and honors

  • 2009 - Fellow of the Academy of Social Science
  • 2012 - MBE for services to Social Science
  • 2013 - Honorary LLD, University of Bath[21]

References

  1. ^ a b Stöckl, Heidi (1988). Partner violence during pregnancy and its risk and protective factors in Germany. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. OCLC 1064996197. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.516968.
  2. ^ "Queen's birthday honour's list 2012: MBE". TheGuardian.com. 15 June 2012.
  3. ^ "Academy of Social Science Fellows".
  4. ^ "Ann Buchanan".
  5. ^ Buchanan, Ann (2013). "Impact and knowledge mobilisation: what I have learnt as Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council Evaluation Committee". Contemporary Social Science. 8 (3): 176–190. doi:10.1080/21582041.2013.767469. S2CID 155079437.
  6. ^ "The Baring Foundation - Report on Activities" (PDF).
  7. ^ "Kanta Gopal".
  8. ^ "Intergenerational Child Maltreatment" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Abuse and neglect as a cause of mental retardation: A study of 140 children admitted to subnormality hospitals in Wiltshire".
  10. ^ Buchanan, A.; Ten Brinke, J.; Flouri, E. (2000). "Parental Background, Social Disadvantage, Public "Care," and Psychological Problems in Adolescence and Adulthood". Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 39 (11): 1415–1423. doi:10.1097/00004583-200011000-00016. PMID 11068897.
  11. ^ "The long-term effects for children of different parental backgrounds".
  12. ^ "Fathers' involvement with their secondary-school-aged children". 16 July 2004.
  13. ^ "Divorcing Children: Children's Experience of Their Parents' Divorce".
  14. ^ "Protective Factors in Family Relationships".
  15. ^ "Book Review. Promoting Children's Emotional Well‐Being Ann Buchanan and Barbara Hudson".
  16. ^ Buchanan, Ann; Rotkirch, Anna (22 November 2018). The Role of Grandparents in the 21st Century: Global Perspectives on Changing Roles and Consequences. ISBN 978-0367076719.
  17. ^ Fertility Rates and Population Decline.
  18. ^ "The British Academy has nominated the book Grandfathers: Global Perspectives for the Peter Townsend Prize".
  19. ^ "The Role of Grandparents in the 21st Century".
  20. ^ "Ann Hermione Buchanan MBE (née Baring) death notice". The Times. 26 February 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2022.
  21. ^ "Our highest honour".