I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Brighton. My current work focuses on evaluating the HeadStart programme in Blackpool. HeadStart is a multi-agency programme, funded by the National Lottery Fund, aiming to promote wellbeing and resilience in young people by mobilising a 'resilience revolution' across the whole of Blackpool.

I obtained a PhD in Developmental Psychology at Koç University (Turkey) in 2020. My PhD research focused on the well-being and development of youth living in the armed conflict zone in eastern Turkey. In my dissertation, I examined factors that posed risk (e.g., armed conflict experiences, poverty, family violence) or protection (e.g., social competence, support in the family) for the psychological well-being and development of youth as well as the underlying mechanisms. While pursuing a PhD, I also worked as a research and teaching assistant at Koç University. Prior to this, I was a research and teaching assistant at the Psychology Department of Izmir University of Economics (Turkey), where I received an MSc degree in Experimental Psychology in 2013. 

Adopting a socio-ecological approach to the theory and practice of resilience, my research interests include investigating individual, familial and contextual risk and promotive/protective factors linked to the well-being and development of youth with a translational agenda. This includes informing policy decision-making about the need and strategies to develop effective early-stage interventions and policies to promote resilience in youth, families, and communities. 

I have extensive experience in using quantitative methods, and in some projects, I have also used mixed methods approaches. I am particularly interested in conducting interdisciplinary research projects co-produced with community partners. 

I am interested in supervising PhD students in various areas of child/young people’s development, health, and education with quantitative or mixed-methods designs. Particular areas of interest for supervision include research on:

• social, emotional and cognitive development
• mental health and resilience
• parenting and family functioning
• prevention and intervention
• education and whole-school approaches
• cross-cultural studies
• cohort or longitudinal studies