Kealagh Robinson

Institution: Victoria University Wellington (Youth Wellbeing Study, and the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab, School of Psychology), New Zealand.

Supervisory team: Professor Marc Wilson and Associate Professor Gina Grimshaw.

Position: PhD Student.

Current research: I am interested in how people experience and regulate their emotions, and especially in how these processes relate to wellbeing. My PhD research uses longitudinal self-report and experimental psychophysiology methods to understand how young people who self-injure respond to emotional challenges, and how this response relates to their future self-injury and suicidality. Ongoing research includes projects focusing on understanding student mental health needs on university campuses, how self-injury effects young adolescent peer relationships, and developing virtual reality as a tool for mood inductions.

Research interests:

• Emotion regulation
• Neurobiology of self-injury
• Self-injury within school and educational settings
• Development of self-injury and suicidality
• Ethics of conducting sensitive research

Key publications:

• Robinson, K., Garisch, J.A., Kingi, T., Brocklesby, M., O’Connell, A.., Langlands, R.L., Russell, L & Wilson, M.S. (2019). Reciprocal risk: The longitudinal relationship between emotion regulation and non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 47(2), 325–332. doi: 10.1007/s10802-018-0450-6
• Hasking, P. A., Lewis, S. P., Robinson, K., Heath N. L., & Wilson, M. S. (2019). Conducting research on nonsuicidal self-injury in schools: Ethical considerations and recommendations. School Psychology International, 40(3), 217–234.
• Whitlock, J., Lloyd-Richardson, E., Baetens, I., Hasking, P., Heath, N., Lewis, S., Franz, P., & Robinson, K. (2018). Helping schools help parents of youth who self-injure. School Psychology International, 39(3), 312–328. doi: 10.1177/0143034318771415
• Robinson, K., Brocklesby, M., Garisch, J.A., O’Connell, A., Langlands, R., Russell, L., Kingi, T., Brown, E., & Wilson, M.S. (2017). Financial deprivation and non-suicidal self-injury in New Zealand adolescents: The mediating role of depression and anxiety. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 46(3), 126–136.
• Fraser, G., Wilson, M., Garisch, J., Robinson, K., Brocklesby M., Kingi, T., O’Connell, A., & Russell, L. (2017). Non-suicidal self-injury, sexuality concerns, and emotion regulation among sexually diverse adolescents: A multiple mediation analysis. Archives of Suicide Research, 3, 432–452. doi: 10.1080/13811118.2017.135822

Can help with: I can help with experimental research, longitudinal survey research, psychophysiology methods, and school-based adolescent research. I can also help with questions about applications for international study visits, working within international collaboration teams, and public engagement.

What’s essential to your well-being? Spending time with my friends and family, playing with kittens at the SPCA, tramping and exploring the beautiful New Zealand scenery, live music gigs, coffee, and good books.

Find Kealagh elsewhere:

• Twitter
• University Profile
• Research Gate
• Email: Kealagh.Robinson@vuw.ac.nz