Dr Kareena McAloney-Kocaman is a Chartered Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. She holds a BSc (Hons) Social Psychology from the University of Ulster, a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Care Ethics and Law from the University of Manchester, and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Ulster. She is deputy lead of the Child and Adolescent Health Research Group, and also a member of the Substance Use Research Group and the Safeguarding Health through Infection Prevention Research Group. Kareena recently led a project funded by the Chief Scientist Office to explore the role of migrant children as interpreters in health care settings, and is currently working on the Covid-19 Psychological Wellbeing  Study, the SMYLE study of young peoples engagement with mental health services, a scoping review of alcohol use in fatherhood and a UK wide study of the psychosocial determinants of wellbeing among the families of military veterans.

Her research interests span social and health psychology particularly in relation to how social group memberships and identities influence health and well-being. Specific areas of interest include:

• Intergroup relations, intergroup contact and well-being
• Religion and ethnicity
• Social capital
• Health behaviours
• Statistical modelling