Layla Rashid

Layla Rashid is a DPhil student in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. Layla’s work is funded by the 1+3 ESRC Grand Union Doctoral Training Programme. Her work in the TOPIC Research Group and oRANGE lab focuses on exploring the relationship between child adversity and the impact this has on later psychopathology. Layla completed her MSc in Psychological Research at the University of Oxford and was awarded a distinction. Her thesis explored maternal experienced bereavement and early adulthood mental health, considering the role of modifiable parental factors. 

Layla's research integrates methods from social epidemiology, clinical and developmental psychology to guide and adapt treatment interventions by identifying protective factors that promote positive psychopathology among vulnerable and at-risk populations. Particularly, her DPhil is focused on developing a guided parent-led psychological intervention for refugee parents to help identify and meet the mental health needs of their young children.

Layla has won various awards including the Vice-chancellors Undergraduate Prize for the most outstanding performance and achievement during an undergraduate degree, the Faculty Prize for best undergraduate student and thesis as well as the MSc Academic Poster Prize. 

Layla has various experience in psychiatric in-patient and out-patient settings including perinatal, treatment, eating disorders, psychiatric intensive care, assessment wards as well as telephone crisis lines. Layla has worked with various charities including her role as a Community Development Manager at the Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust and across various research institutions including the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. Layla has taught undergraduate students across several exchange programmes including Stanford at Oxford, as well as led and taught two modules as a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire.