Jonathan Hill, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Reading

INAUGURAL ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM

Organised by the Applied Social Science Group, Primary Care Unit, University of Cambridge in association with PublicHealth@Cambridge Network

Chair: Ann Louise Kinmonth, Emeritus Professor of General Practice, University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College where she chairs the Inequalities in Health Reading Group

Discussant: Michael Lamb, Professor of Psychology, Cambridge University; Fellow of Sidney Sussex College

This event will be of particular interest to researchers and clinicians interested in human health and development, gender and mental illness, and the application of psychology and sociology to public health and clinical medicine as well as those interested in evolution, biology and behaviour.

Abstract

"Why do boys more often suffer more from early onset neurodevelopmental and behavioural problems, and girls from adolescent onset emotional disorders? The prevailing view is that this is because boys are exposed to more early risks and girls to later ones, and not because the risks or mechanisms are different across the sexes. Many animal and human studies point in a different direction, and so do evolutionary hypotheses. I will discuss how the ‘Sex Biased Parental Investment’ and the ‘Predictive Adaptive Response’ hypotheses jointly imply very different mechanisms in males and females, and illustrate with recent findings from our longitudinal study. I will bring out the clinical and NHS planning implications if these results are robust. If there is time I will briefly outline my domains theory of social interactions, with its evolutionary origins, and therapeutic implications".

Jonathan Hill, Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Reading

There are three main strands to Professor Hill’s research, first the investigation of the long term consequences of childhood adversities for mental health and social functioning, second the development of novel conceptualizations of processes in development and psychopathology leading to new measures and treatment, and third attempting to understand more generally the nature of causal processes in the mind.

Studies of the consequences of childhood experiences have included investigations of adult outcomes following child maltreatment and childhood cancer together with Bridget Young and Peter Salmon in Liverpool and Tim Eden in Edinburgh, and outcomes in childhood of children with cleft lip and palate together with Lynne Murray in Reading. Since 2007, together with Helen Sharp in Liverpool and Andrew Pickles at King's College London, Professor Hill has led the Wirral Child Health and Development Study, the longitudinal study of a cohort of first time mothers recruited during pregnancy to investigate foetal and infancy origins of child and ultimately adult psychopathology.

See more: https://www.reading.ac.uk/Psychology/About/staff/j-hill.aspx

About the Applied Social Science Group

The Applied Social Science Group was established in 2016 within the Primary Care Unit and is led by Dr Robbie Duschinsky. The group provides a forum for research drawing on the social sciences to offer insights into patient experiences, contexts and health behaviours.

More about the Group: http://www.phpc.cam.ac.uk/pcu/research/research-groups/applied-social-science-group/