Research Associate, Cognitive Neuroscience

at  Kings College London

Job id: 086327. Salary: £43,205 per annum pro rata, including London Weighting Allowance.
Posted: 23 April 2024. Closing date: 28 April 2024.
Business unit: IoPPN. Department: Academic Psychiatry.
Contact details: Dr Eva Loth. eva.loth@kcl.ac.uk
Location: Denmark Hill Campus. Category: Research.
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Job description
The successful candidate will join the Safe Passage BONO Team to identify risk/ resilience factors in mental health problems in children and young people from a deprived community sample in South Africa. The Safe Passage Study is a pregnancy cohort of originally >7,000 mothers (and children) seen during mother’s pregnancy, at birth and followed until the child’s first year of life. The Biomarkers of Neurodevelopmental Outcomes (BONO) Project is following 2,000 children from this cohort aged between 4-14 years to examine the role of adverse childhood experiences (including complex trauma) and protective mechanisms in mental health and behavioural problems.
The successful candidate will work under the direction of Dr Eva Loth and collaboratively with team members based both at KCL and Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
The role involves two distinct components:
First, to carry out interim analyses using an existing risk and resilience measure, which will be linked with pre-natal environmental risk factors and clinical outcomes and second, to help create a new developmental risk and resilience measure that builds on clinical experience with adverse childhood experiences trauma, and that accounts for a) developmental processes, b) risk/ resilience factors specific for the South African context.
This post will be offered on a part-time (1 day per week), fixed term contract for 6 months.
Key responsibilities
Carry out statistical analyses of an existing risk/ resilience measure to derive thematic subscales and compare to data driven factors
Write up manuscript for publication
As part of a team, help to create an interview schedule for a qualitative study aimed at creating a new developmental risk/ resilience measure for children and young people in South Africa
Skills, knowledge, and experience
Essential criteria
1. PhD or DClin qualfiication
2. Clinical experience working with vulnerable populations who are/ have been exposed to adverse childhood experiences and/ or have mental health problems
3. Advanced knowledge of developmental psychopathology, including adverse childhood experiences, childhood trauma
4. Thoroughly computer literate and experienced in the use of Microsoft applications
5. Experience with statistical analyses (SPSS, R, STATA)
6. Evidence of preparing manuscripts for publication
Desirable criteria
1. Experiences with neurodivergent populations (including autism, ADHD, Intellectual Disability) relevant for a companion instrument that will assess risk/ resilience factors in neurodivergent people
This post is subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service & Occupational Health Clearance.

Please refer the Job description for details