About us:

Our ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health  is a cross-Faculty initiative between the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy (SSPP) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN).

The centre aims to better understand the complex interrelationships between society and mental health, with a commitment to:

- Ensure that the impact of social context is central to how we understand mental health.

- Work in partnership with affected communities.

About the role:

We are looking for a highly motivated and talented postdoctoral researcher to work with Prof Craig Morgan and team on the exciting next phase of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health Younger Generations Programme, at the IoPPN in King's College London.

You will work with a friendly, supportive, passionate, and hard-working group to undertake statistical analysis of quantitative data to test hypothesis on various aspects of mental health and younger generations. We are multi-disciplinary and place great value on working with young people from diverse backgrounds to deliver relevant, engaging, inclusive, and impactful research.

The overall aims of the next phase of our Younger Generations Programme are to maximise outputs from the first phase, consolidate and extend ongoing research, and establish a schools health research network. Core activities to deliver these aims include analysing data and producing outputs from our ongoing REACH programme, conducting comparative analyses with other regional and national data sets, and supporting the development of a south London schools health research network, with the King’s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People.

The post-doctoral associate will primarily lead on analyses of REACH data, including comparative analyses with other regional and national data sets. REACH is a south London based cohort study of around 4,500 young people initially aged 11-14 years with extension data on mental health at 7 time points. In addition, the post holder will contribute to supporting the development of the schools health research network and the post-holder will contribute ~ 20% of their time to the delivery of teaching at the IoPPN. This may include teaching on a module and supervising student dissertations. 

In addition, we are keen to support post holders with career development and there is an expectation that each will develop independent research, including fellowship applications, with the support of the Centre. We will support this with personalised training, support, and development plans.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a two-year fixed term contract in first instance, with a view to extend subject to funding.

About you:

Essential criteria

• PhD (awarded or pending results) in relevant subject area (e.g., epidemiology, population health, quantitative social science, statistics, psychology)
• Advanced knowledge of mental health
• Excellent knowledge of statistics, including statistical analyses of longitudinal data
• Experience in working with longitudinal data sets
• Ability to work collaboratively with interdisciplinary research teams and non-academic partners, including excellent interpersonal skills
• Excellent organisational and time management skills and ability to work independently and to deadlines
• Experience of preparing and publishing papers in refereed journals and presenting at conferences

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of advanced statistical methods for analysis of longitudinal data (e.g., growth models)
• Experiencing of working with young people, schools, and / or people with mental health problems