Dr Josephine Chen-Wilson

Dr Josphine Chen-Wilson is a senior lecturer in psychology specialising in developmental psychology and its applications to education. 

Graduating with a joint honours degree in Psychology and Education from the University of Warwick, Josephine went on to research how English- and Mandarin-speaking children talked about time in their narratives in her PhD at the University of Manchester.  Josephine's PhD was partly supported by the Graduate School of Science, Engineering and Medicine scholarship. 

Josephine is a national STEM ambassador and a member of WISE.  She has supported numerous STEM outreach and inreach events such as Sci-Fest and Big Bang and STEAM Northants.  Josephine's dedication to increasing children's STEM aspirations has seen the set-up of two widening participation STEM initiatives for primary school children: Girls4Science (the University of Wolverhampton) and STEM4Me (the University of Northampton).  Josephine has presented research findings of primary school children's science capital and their STEM affinity at national conferences and research seminars in Research Centres in and out of the University of Northampton. 

Josephine is an experienced doctorate supervisor and supported 21 doctorate students to completion.  

I am working on two research strands: self-concept clarity and online self-presentation (POSS), and primary school children's STEM aspirations. 

My research on the relationship between self-concept clarity and online self-presentation is a long-term collaboration with Dr Chris Fullwood (Birmingham City University) and Dr Darren Chadwick (Liverpool John Moores University) (Fullwood et al., 2016; Fullwood et al., 2020). 

Through outreach initiatives such as Girls4Science (University of Wolverhampton) and STEM4Me (University of Northampton), I am working with Dr Kimberley Hill and Dr Rachel Maunder on research into factors influencing primary school children's STEM affinity to inform the widening participation agenda.

#FoodMoodnYou was an international COVID-19 research collaboration investigating wellbeing, eating behaviour and physical activity across diverse cultural contexts. Project outputs include Ruiz et al. (2021), Devonport et al. (2022), and the development of the Brief Emotional Eating Scale (BEES) (Ruiz et al., 2023). While the collaboration has reached its natural conclusion, the resulting publications continue to be cited, including a policy citation for Ruiz et al. (2021), and the BEES continues to attract international interest for translation and adaptation.   

Miss Claire Harrison-Breed - Tilting the diamond: the Study of Trauma and Dissociation in children

Mrs Audrey Orage - Young Males contemporary experiences of anxiety