Project Description

Alia is a PhD student working on the HBSC England Study. Her academic journey began at the University of Kent, where she studied Psychology and spent a year in industry with the NHS as an assistant psychologist in an autism diagnostic service. After completing her undergraduate degree, Alia pursued a Master’s in Developmental Psychology, where she was awarded the Jean Piaget Prize for achieving the highest overall marks in her cohort. She later secured funding to undertake her PhD within the School of Social Sciences.

During her professional development, she has collaborated with organisations beyond academia, including the NHS, English Heritage, and Curzon, using research to support public engagement and organisational insight. Alongside this, her research has been grounded in practical experience: she has supported the development of young children in nursery settings and worked with children and adolescents to strengthen their literacy skills. Beyond education-focused roles, she has also developed experience in media communication. She has managed social media and marketing roles to disseminate ongoing research and news from the School of Psychology at the University of Kent in the form of videos, photos and blogs. To support her passion to raise awareness of eating disorders in young people, she has also supported a non-profit student society dedicated to raising awareness of eating disorders and creating a safe space for those who struggle and contributing to fundraising efforts for BEAT. Throughout her experiences, she consistently observed the benefits of evidence-based programmes and the key role research plays in shaping effective decisions, whether in the entertainment, education or health sectors. Together, these experiences have strengthened her interest in applied research and deepened her commitment to science communication to bridge the gap between research and practice.

Over the past few years, she has developed a broad research skillset, working on projects spanning imagination, literacy, and child development. Her undergraduate work explored how imagination changes across the lifespan in collaboration with English Heritage at Dover Castle, while her master’s research examined individual differences in the role of mental imagery in adult reading comprehension. Alia’s current PhD research deviates from her cognitive developmental research experiences to explore a longstanding topic of interest since starting her academic journey which has now been made possible through the HBSC. She will focus on protective factors that could help prevent eating disordered behaviour and body dissatisfaction. She will look at factors such as problematic social media use, family support and health literacy. More broadly, her interests include eating disorders in young people, dieting and eating behaviour, physical activity, social media use, health literacy, imagination, creativity, and research that can inform policy to improve young people’s lives. Through her PhD and beyond, Alia hopes to contribute to meaningful change via research, whether through public engagement, evidence-informed legislation and policy, or working directly with young people to support their health and wellbeing to promote positive behaviours.