Aoife O'Higgins

My research focusses on understanding the mechanisms which lead to poor educational and psychological outcomes for people who have experience multiple adversities in childhood, including children in care and refugee children. Specifically, I am interested in identifying risk and protective factors to inform the development of evidence based social interventions. My work draws on methods from social epidemiology, developmental psychology, evaluation and social work. 

I am currently working on a project funded by the Calleva Foundation through Magdalen College, with Professor Lucy Bowes (Department of Experimental Psychology) and Professor Siân Pooley (Department of History). The project aims to chart life course psychological, social and health outcomes and their comorbidity for children exposed to interpersonal trauma, taking into account other forms of adversity, and to understand mechanisms that account for variability in later functioning. 

I am also committed to knowledge exchange to bridge the gap between research, policy and practice in the local community. I am vice-chair of governors in a local primary school, I lead a project on maternal mental health in Oxfordshire and I support the Oxford Refugee Health Initiative.