I am the Co-PI for HBSC England. As a NMC registered academic community nurse and health visitor, my main research interest is in primary and community health care, especially research that seeks to improve the health and wellbeing of families and children in the community. I hold a strong belief in working in partnership with parents and families and understanding their needs to inform research and practice, most recently the experiences of women in Ukraine of perinatal mental health issues, Becoming Breast Feeding Friendly in UK and parenting using the TOPSE evaluation tool.

 As a nurse and health visitor I have promoted the role of nursing in primary and community care throughout my career and supervised and managed multiple practice-based studies that examine the public health contribution to primary health care practice and policy. With my co-researchers I developed and validated the TOPSE tool for measuring parenting self-efficacy (www.topse.org) that is now widely used nationally and internationally. This has led to research with Aboriginal communities in Western Australia where I am Adjunct Professor and the Sir Walter Murdoch outstanding International Scholar at Murdoch University. I recently led the Becoming Breastfeeding Friendly project across the UK in collaboration with Yale School of Public Health and am currently working with the Children’s Policy Research Unit at UCL on several NIHR funded studies related to the evaluation of the Family Nurse Partnership in England, the delivery of the Health Visiting Service and Adverse Childhood Experiences.

As the lead for research capacity in the NIHR ARC for Kent, Surrey and Sussex, I also have a great interest in mentorship and supporting the health care workforce to develop their clinical and academic careers as a route to bringing transformation to health care delivery and outcomes for patients and families.

I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Padua (Italy) with a specialization in Work and Industrial Psychology in 1996, followed by a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Kent in 1999. Since then, I have been a lecturer and then senior lecturer at the University of Greenwich and at Canterbury Christ Church University. I have joined the University of Kent as a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Health Services Studies (CHSS) in 2018 working for the Research Design Services as part of NIHR. During this period, I have developed significant experience in quantitative data analysis and advanced statistical techniques collaborating in several research projects.

I have been involved in a number funded projects in applied health research looking, for instance, at the positive effects that singing, manipulating artefacts in a museum context, looking at art, etc. can have on the wellbeing of Alzheimer patients and their carers. I have collaborated on a large scale multicentre international study testing the effectiveness of educational programs on the way Type 2 Diabetes patients manage their illness.  In terms of health promotion, I have experience with large scale studies evaluating the role of physical activity in reducing the risk of Type 2 Diabetes in residents of a high risk south London area and the role of health screening in improving the wellbeing of patients with severe mental health problems. All of my research activities in applied health settings have had an element of PPI which typically results in improved measurement tools, research design and overall significance and reach.

I am an experienced supervisor having successfully supervised at Master, Clinical Doctorate, Educational Doctorate and PhD level.

I have also collaborated on research projects more focussed on methodological aspects of research, like validation of measuring scales and instruments (e.g. Risk of Gang Affiliation in teenagers; assessment of cognitive abilities after brain injuries; Italian WISC-IV and WAIS equivalent) and the psychometric properties of diagnostic tools.

I joined HBSC in 2021 as data manger and I am now co-PI for the project. I take active part in the network’s focus group on Mental Health and Well-being, the international report writing group and the validation special interest group.

My expertise focuses on quantitative research designs, construction of attitude measurement tools, validation studies, data management of large scale datasets, psychometrics, cohort studies and survey design in general.

I completed my MSc in Health Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University and previously, an MA in Applied Theatre at the University of Manchester. I have a BSc in Psychology from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. Prior to joining CHSS, I worked on programmes examining and developing the accessibility of health and public services, particularly for migrants and racialised minorities. I have more than 10 years’ experience of delivering practitioner training, programme evaluation, community involvement and policy development around these issues.

I joined CHSS as a Research Assistant in June 2017 and have collaborated with CHSS colleagues, NHS, public health, education and community partners to deliver a series of research projects. These include evaluating community-based projects and co-produced NHS training programmes, as well as bringing together evidence and stakeholders to build recommendations to improve the breastfeeding environment, communication between practitioners and families, and health practitioner involvement in research. Through this, I have gained experience in evaluation design, case studies, consensus building and qualitative approaches with a focus on equity and participant voice.

I joined the HBSC team in 2021, working with the youth representatives and schools at the heart of the study.

Viktoriia completed her B.Sc. degree at Dnipro State University (Ukraine) with a specialization in Social Work followed by her M.Sc. in Public Administration at Dnipro National University (Ukraine) in 2001. She has since been a lecturer, a senior lecturer, and then Assistant Professor at Dnipro National University, at Kyiv Bible Institute, and at Lviv Theological Seminary. She got her Ph.D. in Social Pedagogy from Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University in 2015. She is an experienced supervisor having successfully supervised at the Master, Applied Theology Doctorate, and Ph.D. levels.

Before joining CHSS, Viktoriia worked on programs, seminars, training, and youth clubs on school-aged children’s mental health and behaviour, especially aiming at helping adolescents to cope with loneliness. She worked as an author-compiler and designer of the manual ‘Each of Us is Unique! : A Training Program for Overcoming Students’ Loneliness. She also worked as part of a team of 2 co-writing “Not Alone: Theology of Loneliness or How to Help a Lonely Christian” and translating it into English. Currently awaiting publication from Langham Publishing House. Previously, she also worked with Eastern European Leadership Forum and UEFA in a range of roles including teaching and interpreting.

Viktoriia has been involved in quantitative and qualitative analysis in a number of research, evaluating, for instance, the quality management in the Institution of higher theological education of the Ukrainian Evangelical Church; the changes in Ukrainians’ Pentecostals’ Understanding of their mission and role both in church and in society; the changes in contemporary Ukrainians’ attitude toward the Evangelical church since the hybrid war with Russia.

Roxana is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Health Research at the University of Kent and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research. Her research focuses on the effects of young people’s (ages 11-13) digital technology use on their mental health, specifically anxiety. This research will support the ARC KSS research theme Starting Well: Children’s Mental Health.

Roxana makes use of a mixed-methods approach to explore any impacts that contemporary technologies have on young people’s wellbeing. With her research, Roxana intends to raise awareness on current issues in the digital landscape and hopes that her findings will help inform policy development within this area.

After completing interdisciplinary degrees that were primarily concerned with media studies, digital culture and AI ethics at King’s College London and the University of Greenwich, Roxana has been able to gain professional research experience in the field of children’s and young people’s mental health while working with the EdTech company Tooled Up Education that supports parents and school staff with academically-supported resources. At Tooled Up, Roxana co-creates these resources with other researchers and has helped to facilitate workshops for young people at schools on topics such as digital security, digital literacy and digital citizenship.

Prior to joining CHSS and Tooled Up Education, Roxana has gained work experience in several media and tech-based jobs and volunteered at a UN conference on the topic of trust and transparency in the digital landscape.