Research Associate in Paediatric Pain (fixed-term)

About the role

The Department of Psychology is seeking a skilled and highly motivated post-doctoral research associate to support a 3-year Wellbeing of Women funded project exploring the effect of period pain on the lives of adolescent girls and their school engagement.  

The project, led by Dr Abbie Jordan, aims to use a mixed-methods approach to understand barriers to school engagement during menstruation in adolescent girls (e.g., stigma, pain characteristics, parent/staff attitudes). This will then inform the development of brief pain management educational sessions for adolescents, parents/carers and school staff to increase support and school engagement for adolescent girls. 

There will be several stages to the project: 

1. Hosting interactive workshops at schools to understand period pain beliefs and myths
2. Interviews with adolescent girls, parent/carers and school staff to explore the impact of period pain on school engagement
3. Surveys to understand pain management knowledge, attitudes, school engagement, stigma, self-efficacy and pain interference
4. Synthesising the findings to develop educational sessions on period pain management, and evaluating their success.

About you

The post holder will be actively involved in: i) design, preparation and piloting of research materials, ii) recruitment and data collection (in-person and online), including visiting and liaising with schools and supporting a Research Assistant on the project, iii) analysis of the data according to open science practices, and iv) preparing high quality manuscripts for publication. 

The post holder will join Bath’s thriving Centre for Pain Research and they will be encouraged and supported in pursuing career development opportunities. 

We welcome applications from candidates who have:

• A PhD in Psychology or related discipline
• Experience or interest in the field of health psychology and/or pain management
• Experience of mixed methods data collection (interviews, surveys) and analysis techniques (e.g. reflexive thematic analysis, quantitative approaches)
• Experience of conducting research involving schools and adolescents is desirable
• Excellent team working, communication, and time management skills. 

Additional information

As a member of Research Staff at the University of Bath, you will be encouraged to take up a minimum of 10 days professional development pro rata per year.

We have one position available offered on a full time (36.5 hours per week) fixed-term basis. 

The post is funded until 01/06/2028. 

Due to the research involving adolescents, an Enhanced DBS check will be required for this post. 

A driving licence and willingness to drive to schools is desirable.

Informal enquiries about this role should be directed to Dr Abbie Jordan (pssalj@bath.ac.uk).

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