School of Psychology: Academic Staff

DR. CAROLINE HEARY

Office Rm. 242, St. Anthony's
Telephone 353-91-495059
E-mail Caroline Heary

Dr. Caroline Heary BA, MPsychSc, PhD

Background

Caroline Heary graduated with a BA from the University College Dublin (UCD), after which she completed a Masters of Psychological Science in Health Psychology in NUI, Galway. She subsequently returned to UCD, where she completed her PhD on the development of an instrument to assess children’s satisfaction with hospital services. Having worked as a researcher in the Children’s Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin, she then obtained a post-doctoral research fellowship from the National Children’s Office. She was appointed to her post in NUI, Galway in November 2003.

Caroline is currently the Director of the Masters in Health Psychology and a Co-Director of the PhD in Child & Youth Research. The latter programme is a cross-institutional structured PhD which was launched in Sept. 2009. This programme is delivered by the School of Psychology and the Child and Family Research Centre, School of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway in an institutional partnership with the Children’s Research Centre (a joint initiative of the School of Psychology and the School of Social Work and Social Policy), Trinity College Dublin.

Research Interests

Caroline’s research interests fall into three main areas: child health psychology, mental health stigma and methodological issues relevant to conducting research with children.

Child health psychology: Caroline has a particular interest in the health behaviours of children and adolescents and is involved in a number of projects on factors relating to food consumption, physical activity and the sedentary behaviours of school-aged children. Prior to moving to NUI, Galway, Caroline worked as the lead researcher on a national study of children with acquired brain injury, which was commissioned by the National Rehabilitation Hospital. Further research endeavours in the area of child health psychology have focused on children as service evaluators, and children’s experiences of GP consultations.

Caroline is currently engaged in a collaborative programme of research with Dr. Eilis Hennessy (Department of Psychology, University College Dublin) on children’s understanding of psychological difficulties in peers and stigmatising responses towards children with mental health difficulties. This research team have been successful in receiving funding from the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Millennium Research Fund, National University of Ireland, Galway. More recently, they received a Health Research Award from the Health Research Board to carry out research on the stigmatization of psychological difficulties in children: An exploration of self and public stigma. http://www.hrb.ie/research-strategy-funding/grants-and-fellowships/funding-awarded/funding-award/awards//71/

Supervision of PhD Students

Completed

On-going

Publications

• Hennessy, E. & Heary, C. (2009). The development of children’s understanding of common psychological problems. Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 14, 42- 47.
• Hennessy, E., Swords, L., & Heary, C. (2008). Children’s understanding of psychological problems displayed by their peers: A review of the literature. Child: Care, Health and Development, 34, 4-9.
• Heary, C. & Hennessy, E. (2006 ). Focus groups versus individual interviews with child: A comparison of data. Irish Journal of Psychology, 27, 58-68.
• Heary, C. & Guerin, S. (2006) (Editorial). Research with children in Psychology: The value of a child-centred approach. Irish Journal of Psychology, 27, 6-7.
• Hennessy, E. & Heary, C. (2005). Valuing the group context: The use of focus groups with children and adolescents. In S. M. Greene and D. M. Hogan (Eds). Researching children’s experiences: Approaches and methods (pp.236-252). London: Sage.
• Heary, C., Hogan, D. & Smyth, C. (May, 2003). Living with acquired brain injury during childhood and adolescence: An Irish perspective. Dublin: The Children’s Research Centre, University of Dublin, Trinity College.
• Heary, C. & Hennessy, E. (2002). The use of focus groups in pediatric health care research. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 27, 47-57.

Recent Conference Presentations (since 2005)

• Heary, C., Hennessy, E. & Swords, L. (2009, Apr.). Children and adolescents' beliefs about sources of help for peers with psychological difficulties. Poster to be presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Biennial Meeting, Denver, Colarado..
• Hennessy, E., Swords, L., & Heary, C. (2009, Jan). Children's and adolescents’ reactions to peers who are depressed: Beliefs about personal responsibility and the need for help. Paper presented at the Fourth International Stigma Conference, London, United Kingdom.
• Fitzgerald, A., Heary, C., Nixon, E., & Kelly, C. (2008, July). Factors influencing the food consumption of children and adolescents: A qualitative investigation. Poster presented at the 20th Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, Wurzburg, Germany.
• Swords, L., Hennessy, E. & Heary, C. (2008, July). Introducing the Causes of Psychological Problems Scale (CoPPS): An instrument to assess children’s beliefs about the causes of psychological disorders in their peers. Poster presented at the 20th Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, Wurzburg, Germany
• Fitzgerald, A., Heary, C., Nixon, E., & Kelly, C. (2008, June). Factors influencing the food consumption of children and adolescents: A qualitative investigation with children. Paper presented at the Irish Nutrition Society Meeting, University College Dublin.
• Fitzgerald, A., Heary, C., Nixon, E., & Kelly, C. (2008, March). Parent's perceptions of their children's food consumption: A qualitative investigation. Poster presented at the Associaton for the Study of Obesity Meeting, University of Liverpool, Liverpool.
• Fitzgerald, A. & Heary, C. (2007, June). Perceptions of children about a hypothetical peer with obesity: Does causal information for the obesity have an influence? Poster presented at the European Childhood Obesity Group Conference, Athens, Greece.
• Hennessy, E., Swords, L. & Heary, C. (2007, April). A model of factors predicting children’s acceptance of peers with ADHD and Depression. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Biennial Meeting, Boston.
• Heary, C. & Kola, S. (2006, Nov.). Children’s attitudes towards ADHD: The effect of causal information. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Psychological Society of Ireland, Co. Galway.
• Lagendijk, M. Heary, C. & O’ Neill, M. (2006, Nov). Children's construction of AD/HD: A qualitative study. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Psychological Society of Ireland, Co. Galway.
• Swords, L. & Hennessy, E., Heary, C. (2006, Nov). Children’s beliefs about the causes of ADHD and depression. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Psychological Society of Ireland, Co. Galway.
• Swords, L., Hennessy, E. & Heary, C. (2006, July). Children’s attitudes towards psychological disorders: A developmental analysis. Poster presented at the 19th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, Melbourne Australia.
• Heary, C. & Hennessy, E. (2005, Sept). Developmental changes in children’s understanding of psychological problems: A qualitative study. Paper presented at British Psychological Society, Developmental Section Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland.
• Swords, L., Hennessy, E. & Heary, C. (2005, Sept). Children’s understanding of mental health: A review of the literature. Paper presented at British Psychological Society, Developmental Section Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland.
• Heary, C., Hogan, D., & Smyth, C. (2005, August). Psychosocial impact of paediatric acquired brain injury on children and their families: A qualitative investigation. Paper presented at the European Health Psychology Conference, Galway, Ireland.

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