Health Promotion Staff, Saoirse Nic Gabhainn

Saoirse Nic Gabhainn B.A., M.A., Ph.D., C.Psychol, C.Sci., AFBPsS [Email]

Senior Lecturer in Health Promotion

Profile

Saoirse Nic Gabhainn is a Senior Lecturer in Health Promotion and Project Leader in the Health Promotion Research Centre and the World Health Organisation Collaborative Centre for Health Promotion Research. She has degrees in Psychology and Health Promotion from the National University of Ireland, Galway and the University of Nottingham, England and is both a Chartered Psychologist and a Chartered Scientist.

She is responsible for research programmes in schools health promotion and among young people, and has published widely in the field of child and adolescent health, with a focus on risk (primarily drugs and sexual health) and protective (primarily social support and social network) behaviours, adolescent health inequalities, and child participation in the research process. She has conducted a number of evaluations of school health promotion in Ireland and belongs to the wider Schools for Health in Europe network (see: www. schoolsforhealth.eu).

Since 1994 she has been Principal Investigator for Ireland with the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) network, serving on the Scientific Development Group, the International Co-ordinating Committee and chairing topic-based focus groups such as that on Risk Behaviour and Sexual Health. The Irish HBSC research team in NUI Galway has specific expertise in a wide range of health related behaviours, youth engagement, disadvantaged and vulnerable youth and the application of Geographic Information Systems to child and adolescent health. For further details on the HBSC project and the team members, and to download papers, reports factsheets and short reports from HBSC see www.nuigalway.ie/hbsc.

Saoirse has taught across all of the programmes offered by the Discipline of Health Promotion, with a focus on research methods and statistics well as schools health promotion and mental health and social wellbeing. She supervises research students at PhD level on a range of topics, which currently include: Health Promoting Schools (Yetunde John-Akinola), the implementation of Relationships and Sexuality Education (Christina Murphy), the role of research in adolescent health-related policy development (Helen Grealish), the experience of persisting with breastfeeding (Teresa Meaney) and sex workers experience of the health services (Leigh-Ann Sweeney). She sits on the Graduate Research Committees of a range of other PhD students and is currently Director of Post-graduate Research Programmes for the School of Health Sciences.

Research Interests

• Health and Health Behaviour in Childhood and Adolescence
• Women’s Health
• School Health Promotion
• Methodologies for Health Promotion Research

Professional Activities

• Member of the Research Development Advisory Group of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, of the Scientific and Policy Advisory Committee of the Growing up in Ireland Studyand of the expert advisory committee of the Child Development Initiative, Tallaght.
• Member of the Psychological Society of Ireland (founding member of the Division of Health Psychology), British Psychological Society (Member of the Division of Health Psychology), the American Psychological Association, the European Society for Social Pediatrics, the Society for Social Medicine and the Association for Health Promotion, Ireland.

Selected Publications

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de Looze, M., Pickett, W., Raaijmakers, Q., Kuntsche, E., Hublet, A., Nic Gabhainn, S., Bjarnason, T., Molcho, M., Vollebergh, W. & ter Bogt, T. (2012). Early Risk Behaviours and Adolescent Injury in 25 European and North American Countries: A Cross-National Consistent Relationship. Journal of Early Adolescence, 32(1), 104-125. [ download] 324KB

de Róiste, A., Kelly, C., Molcho, M., Gavin, A. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2012). Is School Participation Good for Children? Associations with Health and Wellbeing. Health Education, 112(2), 88-104. download (93KB)

Richter, M., Rathmann, K., Nic Gabhainn, S., Zambon, A., Boyce, W. & Hurrelmann, K. (2012). Welfare state regimes, health and health inequalities in adolescence: a comparative study in 35 countries. Sociology of Health and Illness (DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01433).

Sentenac, M., Arnaud, C., Gavin, A., Molcho, M., Nic Gabhainn, S. & Godeau, E. (2012). Peer victimization among school-aged children with chronic conditions. Epidemiologic Reviews, 34, 120-128  (doi: 10.1093/epirev/mxr024). download (143KB)

ter Bogt, T.F.M., Nic Gabhainn, S., Simons-Morton, B.G., Ferreira, M., Hublet, A., Godeau, E., Kuntsche, E. & Richter, M. (2012). Dance is the new metal: adolescent music preferences and substance use across Europe. Substance Use and Misuse, 47(2), 130-142.

Gobina, I., Välimaa, R., Tynjälä, J., Villberg, J., Vilerusa, A., Iannotti, R.J., Godeau, E., NicGabhainn, S., Andersen, A. & Holstein, B.E. (2011). Medicine use and corresponding subjective health complaints among adolescents, a cross-national survey. Pharmacoepidemology and Drug Safety, 20(4), 424-431. download (94KB)

Sentenac, M., Gavin, A., Arnaud, C., Molcho, M., Godeau, E., & Nic Gabhainn., S. (2011). Victims of Bullying Among Students With a Disability or Chronic Illness and Their Peers: A Cross-National Study Between Ireland and France. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48(5), 461-466. download (226KB)

ter Bogt, T.F.M., Mulder, J., Raaijmakers, Q.A.W., Nic Gabhainn, S. (2011). Moved by Music: a typology of music listeners. Psychology of Music 39(2), 147-163. (DOI: 10.1177/0305735610370223). download 260KB

O’Higgins, S. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Youth participation in setting the agenda: learning outcomes for sex education in Ireland. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 10(4), 387-403. download (256KB)

Gaudineau, A., Ehlinger, V., Nic Gabhainn, S., Vayssiere, C., Arnaud, C. & Godeau, E. (2010). Use of emergency contraception pill by 15 years old girls: results from the international health behaviour in school-aged children (HBSC) study. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 117(10), 1197-1204. download (129KB)

Kelly, C., Molcho, M. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Patterns of weight reduction by weight status in schoolchildren. Public Health Nutrition, 13(8), 1229-1236. download (115KB)

Kelly, C., Mocho, M., Doyle, P. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010) Psychosomatic symptoms among schoolchildren in Ireland. International Journal of Adolescent Health and Medicine, 22(2), 223-230. download (312KB)

Kelly, C., Clerkin, P., Mulvihill, M. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Food marketing in Irish schools. Health Education, 110(5), 336-350. download (92KB)

Molcho, M., Kelly, C. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Deficits in health and well-being among immigrant children in Ireland: the explanatory role of social capital. Translocations: The Irish Migration, Race and Social Transformation Review, 6(1). download (145KB)

Mulder J., ter Bogt, T.F.M., Raajimakers, Q.A.W., Nic Gabhainn, S. & Sikkema, P. (2010) From death metal to R&B? Consistency of music preferences among Dutch adolescents and young adults. Psychology of Music, 33(1), 67-83. download (183KB)

Mulder, J., ter Vogt, T., Raaijmakers, Q.A., Nic Gabhainn, S., Monshouwer, K. & Vollebergh, W. (2010). Is it the music? Peer substance use as a mediator of the link between music preferences and adolescent substance use. Journal of Adolescence, 33, 387-394. download (295.57KB)  

Nic Gabhainn, S., O’Higgins, S. & Barry, M. (2010). The implementation of Social, Personal and Health Education in Irish schools. Health Education, 110(6), 452-470. download (102KB)

O’Higgins, S. Sixsmith, J. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Adolescents’ perceptions of the words ’health’ and ’happy’. Health Education, 110(5), 367-381. download (92.23KB)

Reynolds, C., Barry, M. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Evaluating the impact of the Winning New Jobs programme on the re-employment and mental health of a mixed profile of unemployed people. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 12(2), 32- 41. download (374KB)

Spriggs-Madkour, A., Farhat, T., Halpern, C.T., Godeau, E. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Early adolescent sexual initiation as a problem behaviour: a comparative study of five nations. Journal of Adolescent Health, 47(4), 389-398.) download (252KB)

Spriggs, A., Farhat, T., Halpern, C.T. & Nic Gabhainn, S. (2010). Early adolescent sexual initiation and physical/psychological symptoms: a comparative analysis of five nations. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39(10), 1211-1225. download (318KB)

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