Kate Mooney
Research Fellow (Assistant Professor)
Profile
Biography
Kate is a Research Fellow (Assistant Professor) in Epidemiology and Evaluation Methods. Kate works in the Family Wellbeing team within the Public Health and Society Research Group, and in partnership with the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub (BSBIH) based at the Bradford Institute for Health Research. The BSBIH conduct research on interventions that are delivered to families with children aged 0–4 years in three areas of Bradford using the Born in Bradford’s Better Start (BiBBS) cohort. Kate leads on several quantitative evaluations of these interventions, and on quantitative studies delivered through the Best Start topic of the Yorkshire and Humber Applied Research Collaboration. Her work explores the use of different measures of parenting and child development, and investigates the mechanisms behind inequalities in children’s outcomes.
Kate completed her PhD in the department in 2021, which investigated socioeconomic and ethnic inequalities in children’s working memory development in the Born in Bradford cohort study. Kate has a background in Psychology, with an MSc in Child Development and an MA in Social Research. Kate has also worked as a Research Assistant for the Born in Bradford study, and as a Trial Support Officer for the E-SEE trial.
Qualifications
- PhD – Department of Health Sciences, University of York
- MSc Development, Disorders and Clinical Practice, Psychology, University of York
- MA Social Research, University of York
- BSc (Industrial) Psychology, University of Leeds
Departmental roles
- October 2022 – Present: Member of the Contract Researchers' Forum
- July 2022: Co-organiser of the first Department of Health Sciences ‘Research Showcase’
Research
Overview
Broadly, Kate is interested in investigating and reducing social inequalities in children’s development. She has a particular interest in children’s cognitive development, social and emotional development, and educational outcomes.
Kate has experience in using analytic methods such as regression, structural equation modelling, item response theory, multilevel modelling, and exploratory/confirmatory factor analysis. Kate applies causal inference techniques to her analysis and works with large datasets from longitudinal cohort studies.
Projects
Research group(s)
External activities
Invited talks and conferences
Presentations
- 2024: Annual International Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (Essex). Longitudinal Pathways Between Socioeconomic Status and Educational Attainment: Mediation by Executive Functions and Processing Speed.
- 2024: Emerging Longitudinal Scholars webinar organised by CLOSER. Longitudinal pathways between socioeconomic status and educational attainment: mediation by executive functions and processing speed.
- 2023: "Staged-and-Tailored" Informed Consent Symposium. Is it feasible to nest a Trial within a Cohort Study (TwiCS) to evaluate an early years parenting programme? A planned study with the Born in Bradford’s Better Start cohort.
- 2023: A Better Start Bradford learning event for nurses and practitioners. ‘How do we know what works in the early years, and who for?’
- 2022: British Psychological Society Developmental Conference. Socioeconomic position, the home learning environment & working memory across two ethnic groups.
- 2021: 3rd place at the University of York 3 Minute Thesis competition. Unequal memories: Is children's learning a matter of social circumstance?
- 2021: Society for Social Medicine & Population Health Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting. Socioeconomic disadvantage and ethnicity are associated with large differences in cognitive abilities that underlie children's educational outcomes: analysis of a prospective birth cohort study.
- 2021: Association for Psychological Science Virtual Convention. The Association between Socioeconomic Position and Working Memory Ability Varied across Ethnic Groups: Analyses of a Longitudinal Study. Poster presentation.
Awards
- October 2022: Department of Health Sciences ‘Making the Difference’ (MTD) award for organising the Health Sciences Research Showcase.
- September 2022: European Society for Prevention Research award (Best Early Career Researcher Conference poster, September 2022)
- August 2021: Third Place at the University of York 3 Minute Thesis competition for talk titled ‘Unequal memories: Is children's learning a matter of social circumstance?’. I wrote a blog post for the York Graduate Research School page, and my talk can be viewed online.
- September 2017: ‘Outstanding Dissertation’ Prize (Development, Disorders, and Clinical Practice MSc)
