Risk behaviour and coping mechanisms of children and adolescents with severe food allergy

Food allergy is an immunologically-mediated reaction to protein in foods such as peanuts, milk, eggs, fish and wheat. Allergic symptoms include swelling of mouth, lips and tongue, wheezing, rashes and in severe cases anaphylactic shock which can be fatal. There is no simple cure for food allergy and patients have to be constantly vigilant to ensure they avoid potentially life threatening accidental reactions. There is limited research which specifically examines how children and adolescents view the risk of food allergy and how they cope with it. This is an area of interest as these age groups represent the highest proportion of fatal reactions. In order to develop interventions to tackle risky behaviours it is important to establish an individual’s level of risk taking behaviour and their coping strategies, therefore scales need to be developed to reliably measure these. This study aims to explore attitudes towards risk taking in children and adolescents with food allergy and how they cope emotionally and physically with having a food allergy. A coping with food allergy scale will then be developed and validated.

This project will involve conducting interviews and focus groups with children and adolescents with food allergy, scale development and validation. Applicants will need to demonstrate excellent qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis skills and should have knowledge of the development and validation of psychometric scales. Experience of working with a clinical population or a vulnerable group would also be an advantage.

The high quality of research in Aston’s School of Life and Health Sciences was confirmed in the last Research Assessment Exercise (RAE): research in Allied Health Professions and Studies ranked 3rd out of 63 UK Higher Education Institutions. Additional information about research in the School can be found at http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lhs/research/

Financial Support:
The studentship comprises of a tax-free stipend of £13,863 p.a. and payment of Home/EU tuition fees only. The studentship is available for three years, subject to satisfactory progress review at the end of the first year, with an anticipated Registration date of 1st July 2015. Please Note: The Funding is only available to Home/EU Applicants and Overseas Applicants are not eligible to apply.

Application Requirements:
● Eligible Applicants should hold at least a Bachelor (Hons.) Degree of either First Class/Upper Second Class in Psychology or related discipline and an MSc in Health Psychology or related discipline. Experience in working with a clinical or vulnerable population would also be desirable.
● EU Applicants will need to demonstrate adequate proficiency in English Language skills, with a minimum overall score of 101 (Internet Based) (with a minimum score in each section of: R: 23, W: 26, L: 23 and S: 22) in TOEFL or IELTS with minimum marks of 6.5 in each section and an overall band of at least 7.0.
● Informal enquiries should be addressed to the Project Supervisor, Dr Rebecca Knibb (E-mail: [Email Address Removed]). To apply please complete the on-line application form at
http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lhs/research/postgraduate-research/apply/ quoting the Reference: ‘AUK-Knibb’ on all applications.
● The Closing Date for All Applications is: Friday, 24th April 2015.