I am a social epidemiologist who applies a life course approach to understanding the importance of the early family social environment for health across the life course. 

I currently lead the quantitative side of an NIHR funded project with the Children and Families Policy Research Unit on interparental violence, parental substance misuse, parental mental health and effects on children's mental health. In addition to this, I am interested in how informal caring affects health and am a Co-I on a large, European Consortium (EUROCARE) investigating inequalities in informal caring on health and social participation. 

Before these projects I led an ESRC grant on early life adversities and mental health over the life course using large population cohorts (Millennium Cohort Study, 1958 British birth cohort and the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children). I was also previously a Co-Investigator on a Nuffield Foundation funded project looking at long-term outcomes of looked after children in the ONS Longitudinal Study and PI on a follow-up project looking at the living arrangements of children in the Northern Ireland and Scottish Longitudinal Studies.

In previous roles I have worked on work-family life courses and how they affect health in the British birth cohorts.