BSU PhD students present at the Sydney Psychology Post Graduate Conference (25/11/2015)
Published on the 09 December 2015
While the year is rapidly coming to a close, there was enough time for three of the BSU’s PhD students to present at the Sydney Psychology Post Graduate Conference.
Held at the University of Sydney, the conference brought together students undertaking PhDs in the area of psychology from all stages of study, through 1st year to completion. This year, Ms Lauren Touyz, Mr Alistair Lum and Ms Eden Robertson represented the BSU.
Lauren presented her work on the weight gain of children during treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). Lauren conducted a retrospective audit of medical records and found many children experience weight gain during treatment that, in some cases, is maintained even 7 years after treatment completion. She discussed her plans to develop a healthy eating intervention, called Reboot, to help children establish and maintain good eating habits during and beyond treatment. She is currently preparing a manuscript for publication with her supervisors Jennifer Cohen, A/Prof Claire Wakefield, and Prof Richard Cohn.
Next up was Alistair who’s PhD is investigating the effects of serious illnesses on school outcomes, and how to best promote positive school engagement in the context of a child’s illness (EduSwell). Alistair presented the results of his recently completed study of German school children with physical and mental illness, that he conducted while on internship in Ulm, in the laboratory of Prof Lutz Goldbeck. He found German students with mental illness were less engaged with school compared to students with physical illness and healthy students. Alistair is now conducting this research in an Australian sample. Alistair is supervised by A/Prof Claire Wakefield, Ms Barb Donnan, and Prof Glenn Marshall.
Eden finished the session by presenting her proposed PhD research plan. Eden is investigating how best to support parents of children diagnosed with cancer make decisions about whether to enrol their child in a clinical trial. Her study aims to design and evaluate a decision aid for parents that are considering enrolment in early-phase clinical trials. The decision aid will be developed in consultation with parents, patients and health professions. Eden will be starting her PhD in 2016 and is supervised by Dr Joanna Fardell, A/Prof Claire Wakefield, and Prof Richard Cohn.
