Professor Straughan’s research interests center around the sociology of family and medical sociology. She is the Director of the recently established Centre for Research on Successful Ageing in SMU, a center dedicated to finding ways to ensure and improve well-being among the elderly in Singapore’s ageing society. Separately, she leads a project investigating the environmental risk factors in childhood obesity. She was also the Principal Investigator of a recently concluded project on Successful Ageing in Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai which involved multiple institutions and a multidisciplinary team. Professor Straughan serves as Consultant on numerous projects commissioned by various government agencies, including the Marriage and Parenthood Survey 2016 & 2012 commissioned by the National Population and Talent Division. She has published in both sociology and medical journals, like Social Science and Medicine, Cancer, and Cancer Causes and Control. Her books include Marriage Dissolution in Singapore: Revisiting Family Values and Ideology in Marriage, and Ultra-Low Fertility in Pacific Asia: Trends, Causes and Policy Issue (with Gavin Jones and Angelique Chan).

Professor Straughan was a Nominated Member of Parliament from 2009 to 2011, during which she argued for work-life balance and the nurture of a more pro-family social environment. Her community involvement includes serving on the Child and Youth Health Task Force, and the Infectious Disease Research Advisory Group (both at the Ministry of Health).

She is happily married to an Applied Mathematician, and they have 2 sons.