Dr Fiona Mensah is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Royal Children’s Hospital. Her research interests are in child health inequalities; children’s development in the context of social disadvantage and family adversity; and the relationships with access to health and developmental services. Her work focuses on epidemiological studies of families and children’s development and health including the Longitudinal Studies of Australian Children, the Early Language in Victoria Study and the Maternal Health Study. She also supports clinical trials of early interventions to improve children’s health and development including right@home, a trial of intensive nurse home visiting for vulnerable families beginning in pregnancy. Her previous research has been based in the UK using the Millennium Cohort Study where she studied the relationships between the family environment, parenting behaviours and children’s health and development.
Experience
2010–present
NHMRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
2009–2010
Research Fellow, Discipline of Public Health, University of Adelaide
2006–2009
Research Fellow, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York
2002–2006
Research Fellow, Department of Health Sciences, University of York
Education
2011
Department of Social Policy and Social Work, University of York, PhD
1995
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, MSc
1994
Department of Mathematics, University of Leicester, BSc
Publications
2013
Early puberty and childhood social and behavioral adjustment, Journal of Adolescent Health
2013
Psychosocial risk factors associated with fathers’ mental health in the postnatal period: results from a population-based study, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
2012
Father mental health during the early parenting period: results of an Australian population based longitudinal study, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
2012
Mental Health in Low-to-Moderate Risk Preterm, Low Birth Weight, and Small for Gestational Age Children at 4 to 5 Years: The Role of Early Maternal Parenting, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
2011
Poverty, Family Resources and Children’s Early Educational Attainment: The Mediating Role of Parenting, British Educational Research Journal
2011
Maternal general health and children’s cognitive development and behaviour in the early years: findings from the Millennium Cohort Study, Child: Care, Health and Development
2010
Partnership trajectories, parent and child well-being, Children of the 21st Century (Editors: Hansen K, Joshi H, Dex C)
2010
Parents’ mental health and children’s cognitive and social development, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
2010
Gender differences in educational attainment: influences of the family environment, British Educational Research Journal
2009
Poverty, Maternal Depression, Family Status and Children’s Cognitive and Behavioural development in Early Childhood: a longitudinal study, Journal of Social Policy
2009
Maternal indicators in pregnancy and children’s infancy that signal future outcomes for children’s development, behaviour and health: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study, Report commissioned by The UK National Child and Maternal Health Observatory (ChiMat) and Department of Health
2008
Childhood deprivation, health and development: associations with adult health in the 1958 and 1970 British prospective birth cohort studies, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Grants and Contracts
2013
Turning points: breaking intergenerational cycles of intimate partner abuse and social adversity
Role:
CI
Funding Source:
NHMRC
2013
How language develops, what goes wrong, and why it matters: Following the Early Language in Victoria Study to age 13
Role:
CI
Funding Source:
NHMRC
2013
Patterns, pathways and price of developing disparities in cardiovascular and respiratory health by age 11-12 years: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children
Role:
CI
Funding Source:
NHMRC
2012
Centre of Research Excellence in Childhood Language
Role:
CI
Funding Source:
NHMRC
2012
Early Career Fellowship: Developing and applying quantitative methods for obtaining new insights into children’s health inequalities from longitudinal cohort studies