PhD spotlight

Seb Stannard is a third year PhD student in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton funded by the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. His research uses a British birth cohort study (the BCS70) to explore the pathways through which events in childhood may impact both health and demographic outcomes at midlife, paying particular attention to early life mediating pathways. His supervisors are Ann Berrington, Professor of Demography and Social Statistics and CPC Fertility and Family Strand Coordinator, and Nisreen Alwan, Associate Professor in Public Health, both at the University of Southampton.

“Before starting my PhD, I completed both my undergraduate degree in Sociology and Criminology, and my masters in Social Research Methods at the University of Southampton. During the first year of my undergraduate degree I took an optional Demography module and quickly became interested in the subject. During my undergraduate studies I never actually planned on doing a PhD. I initially applied for the Demography Masters course but when I was asked about the potential of doing a PhD I felt it was an opportunity I could not turn down.

My research interests involve exploring the life course - investigating how events in childhood may have long lasting impacts across a person’s life. My PhD follows a paper based approach. The first paper of my PhD investigates the intergeneration transmission of separation, paying particular attention to early life mediators. My second paper evaluates the association between parental separation and offspring hypertension risk at midlife, comparing and contrasting the relative effect of mediators in childhood and adulthood. My third paper is a short methodological paper, quantifying multipartner fertility defined as someone who has had biological children with more than one partner. My final paper explores the role of multi-partner fertility and age at first birth on hypertension and obesity risk at midlife.

As part of my PhD I have published my Master’s dissertation titled ‘Associations between birth order with mental well-being and psychological distress in midlife: Findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)’ in PLOS ONE and I am currently addressing a revise and resubmit for the first two papers of my PhD. Away from the PhD I also conducted two internships. One with the Macmillan Survivorship Research Group based within the School of Health Science investigating what pre-treatment factors are associated with quality of life in women with gynaecological cancers at diagnosis and one year later. The second was a development award based within the school of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education. Here I worked on developing a multidisciplinary ecosystem to study life course determinants of complex mid-life multimorbidity using artificial intelligence (MELD). These internships have been really beneficial and enriching to my PhD. They have taught me how to collaborate with colleagues from a range of disciplines different from my own and have helped me to consider the research area I hope to stay in following my PhD.

Being part of the CPC research group as a PhD student has helped me develop my research skills and broadened my knowledge through the CPC webinar series. Being a member of the Centre has also helped me interact and engage with academics outside my own institution and I have been supported in attending conferences and with authoring and disseminating publications.”

Further reading

Associations between birth order with mental well-being and psychological distress in midlife: Findings from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) (PLOS ONE)

PhD congratulations

Congratulations to PhD student Katie Heap on passing her PhD viva. Supervised by Professor Roger Ingham and Professor Ann Berrington, Katie’s thesis examined the changing determinants of teenage pregnancy in England.