Research Interests

My PhD research is an ESRC Case project titled “Non-participation in screening for inherited cardiac conditions among adolescents: Systematic investigation of the decision-making process”.  This project is co-funded by Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY). In addition to my PhD, I am taking up the Postgraduate Certificate for Health Psychology Practise to receive my Stage 2 qualification in Health Psychology.

My main interest in my studies is identifying what affective and cognitive processes characterise the decision-making of parents to consent to their adolescent children undergoing screening for inherited cardiac conditions particularly for people who decide not to participate in screening. In this regard, psychological literature provides some evidence about the reasons for participation in screening in relation to chronic diseases and adult population. Screening for inherited cardiac conditions offered to adolescents however has not been subject of similar investigations. Despite an increase in awareness of sudden cardiac death in young people in the UK (partly informed by high profile deaths), little is known about the way people make a sense of these conditions and take precautionary actions. My PhD takes on Weinstein’s (1980) Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) and Affect Heuristics in its investigation of the decision-making processes and for identifying the factors influencing people’s engagement with health risk.

My other research interests include health risk communication, health promotion and naturalistic decision-making (NDM).