Student research
Current students
- Joanna Doley PhD Student
- Danielle Smith PhD
- Hannah Jarman PhD Student
- Vanessa Kirby Honours student
- Anita Raspovic Honours student
Recent students
Dr Siân McLean
Siân completed her Doctor of Philosophy thesis in 2016. Her thesis was titled “Investigating Media Literacy and Appearance Comparison as Protective and Risk Factors for Body Dissatisfaction in Adolescent Girls: Implications for Prevention”.
Publications resulting from doctoral research:
McLean, S. A., Paxton, S. J., & Wertheim, E. H. (2013). Mediators of the relationship between media literacy and body dissatisfaction in early adolescent girls: Implications for prevention. Body Image, 10, 282-289. doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2013.01.009
McLean, S. A., Paxton, S. J., & Wertheim, E. H. (2016). Does media literacy mitigate risk for reduced body satisfaction following exposure to thin-ideal media? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 45, 1678-1695. doi: 10.1007/s10964-016-0440-3
McLean, S. A., Paxton, S. J., & Wertheim, E. H. (2016a). The measurement of media literacy in eating disorder risk factor research: Psychometric properties of six measures. Journal of Eating Disorders, 4, 30. doi:10.1186/s40337-016-0116-0
McLean, S. A., Paxton, S. J., & Wertheim, E. H. (2016b). The role of media literacy in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating: A systematic review. Body Image, 19, 9-23. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.08.002
McLean, S. A., Wertheim, E. H., Marques, M. D., & Paxton, S. J. (2016). Dismantling prevention: Comparison of outcomes following media literacy and appearance comparison modules in a randomised controlled trial. Journal of Health Psychology, Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/1359105316678668
Dr Candice Dunstan
Candice completed her Doctoral of Clinical Psychology thesis in 2014. Her thesis was titled“The efficacy of a peer-based intervention in reducing body dissatisfaction and its risk factors among young adolescent females”.
Publications resulting from doctoral research:
Dunstan, C.J., Paxton, S.J., & McLean, S.A. (2016). An evaluation of a body image intervention in adolescent girls delivered in single-sex versus co-educational classroom settings. Eating Behaviors. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eatbeh.2016.03.016
Dr Emma Spiel
Emma completed her Doctoral of Clinical Psychology thesis in 2014. Her thesis was titled “Sociocultural and Individual Predictors of Children’s Body Size Stereotypes, Body Size Ideals, and Dieting Awareness from 3 to 4-Years-Old: A Longitudinal Investigation”. Weight attitudes were examined in a sample of 254 girls and boys from 3 to 4-years-old to test the hypotheses that children:
- hold stereotypical beliefs about others based on body size
- adhere to cultural body ideals, and
- have an awareness of what it means to diet.
She also investigated the hypothesis that child individual characteristics as well as sociocultural variables would predict the development of child body size stereotypes, body size ideals and dieting awareness.
Publications resulting from doctoral research:
Spiel EC, Paxton SJ, Yager Z. Weight attitudes in 3- to 5-year-old children: Age differences and cross-sectional predictors. Body Image 2012;9:524-527.
Spiel EC, Rodgers RF, Paxton SJ, Wertheim EH, Damiano SR, Gregg KJ, et al. ‘He's got his father's bias’: parental influence on weight bias in young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 2015.
Ms Alicia Holborn
Thesis title: "The relationship between biopsychosocial variables and body dissatisfaction, dietary restraint, dieting for muscularity and weight bias in 5-year-old boys and girls".
Dr Katherine Hill
Thesis title: "Confident Body, Confident Child 18-month evaluation: Assessing child outcomes”.
Dr Tania Nichols
Tania completed her Doctor of Clinical Psychology thesis in 2017. Her thesis was titled “Psychological Predictors of Body Image Attitudes and Concerns in Early School Aged Children.
Future students
Our EMBodIED Research team members are available to supervise student research towards the completion of Honours in Psychology, Clinical Psychology Masters or Masters by Research, and Doctor of Philosophy. If you are interested in learning more about potential student projects, please contact one of our team members directly by following the links on our team members page.