Dr Katarzyna Kostyrka-Allchorne

Profile

Katarzyna is a developmental psychologist researching risks and opportunities of growing up in a digital world. Her current research cuts across the disciplines of child and adolescent development, mental health, clinical interventions, and human-computer interactions and has two main strands.

First, she examines whether digital interventions can provide a solution to the growing problem of the lack of psychological support for parents, who may have a difficult time bringing up their children. Within this strand, she works with parents, clinicians, app developers and other researchers on developing and testing digital applications supporting parents both in the community  as well as in the clinical services. Second, her research investigates whether, why and for whom digital engagement is a risk or protective factor for mental health. This strand of research aims to provide a comprehensive characterisation of the associations between adolescent digital activity and mental health and identify some of their underpinning mechanisms.

Research