Professor Hunter's research takes place at the intersection between mental health and developmental psychology, and applies theoretical models of stress and coping within a social ecological framework to understand the psychological and social wellbeing of children and young people. At GCU, he leads the Child and Adolescent Heath research group, and is a member of the Substance Use research group too. He is an Associate Editor at both Stigma and Health and the International Journal of Bullying Prevention.

Current research interests include violence reduction, loneliness, and mental illness stigma. This includes projects relating to knife seizure imagery and to the Mentors in Violence Prevention program which are both funded by, and in collaboration with, Police Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit. Concerning loneliness, Professor Hunter is involved in two separate funded projects developing a gamified intervention led by Professor Stephen Houghton at the University of Western Australia.

Current student collaborators are:

• 2020- Rebecca Johnson and Rachel Taylor (PhDs co-funded by the Mental Health Foundation). The studies relate to children and young people's mental health, including mental illness stigma experiences of adolescents, how these can be assessed, and how they relate to peer-victimisation.
• 2020- Edith O’Dowd, Pollyanna Valente and Sara Mackey are working collaboratively on DPsych projects focussing on stigma relating to substance use.
• 2020- Fern Copland, Matthew Siami, and Robert Barrett are working collaboratively on DPsych projects focussing on paternal mental health in the perinatal period.
• 2020-2021: Kirsty Fraser, Rachel McLaren, and Caitlin Mulholland are completing their final year undergraduate projects on mental illness stigma, social support during lockdown, and the role of stigma in bullying victimisation.
• 2017- Sofia Pimenta’s PhD is examining how young people cope with symptoms of mental illness and how they cope with symptoms disclosed to them by friends. Stefania Pagani’s PhD is evaluating the Mentors in Violence Prevention program in Scottish Schools (studentship co-funded by Police Scotland's Violence Reduction Unit).