Health Behaviour in School Aged Children- Funded PhD at University of Kent 2025

The Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent (CHSS see https://research.kent.ac.uk/chss/ for more information) is advertising three PhD positions, full-time only, to join the existing research team of the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children project in England (HBSC see www.hbscengland.org for more detail about the England project and team). HBSC is an international study, sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO see www.HBSC.org for more detail about the international project) which collects health related attitudes and behaviours data from school pupils aged 11, 13 and 15 years old using a cross-sectional, probabilistic, stratified, random, two-stages cluster sampling approach.

The successful candidates will be expected to carve a specific research question that aligns with their own research interest while, at the same time, addressing one of the three main priorities set by the funders, the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Education. The three set research priority areas are for now specified as: 

• Investigating how the relationship between Social Media Use and Mental Health in young people aged 11, 13 and 15 years old, might be mediated/moderated by other aspects of their Physical Health (e.g. physical activity, nutrition, etc.). 
• Exploring the feasibility and acceptability of various methods of data linkage between HBSC data and other administrative data (e.g. health records, school records, etc.). 
• Improving the way we conceptualise and measure ‘Loneliness’ in young people aged 11,13 and 15 years old. What does it mean for young people to ‘feel lonely’ and how can we best measure those feelings with a survey instrument?

Table of Content

• Summary
• Benefits
• Requirements
• Application Deadline
• How To Apply

Summary

• Application DeadlineAugust 31, 2025
• Study LevelPhD
• SponsorUniversity of Kent
• City to studyLondon
• School to studyUniversity of Kent
• Course to studyHealth Sciences
• Eligible CountryAll Countries

Benefits

Tuition fees at the home rate and an annual stipend at the UKRI rate (£20,780 for 25/26) for 3 years.

Requirements

• All applicants will be required to have at least an undergraduate and a Master level degree in a relevant field (e.g. Psychology, Health Studies, Child Development, or similar).
• At least two of the positions will also require the application of quantitative research methods, good existing quantitative analytical skills and the willingness to develop statistical and data management skills to a higher level. This would allow candidates to take full advantage of a dataset that comprises a multilevel structure, an international element, and 40 years of trends in some countries.

Application Deadline

How To Apply

Please submit an application of study for a PhD Applied Health Research 

Applications should name Dr. Sabina Hulbert or Prof. Sally Kendall as a potential supervisors and outline a simple research proposal based on some of the outcome measures already included in the HBSC study (see national or international reports for more information) and expanding one of three research priorities listed above. 

Candidates meeting the necessary entry requirements will be invited to an interview.

For more information contact:

Dr. Sabina Hulbert @ [email protected]

For more details, visit University of Kent Scholarship webpage