Professor Jennifer Lau

Profile

I graduated with an undergraduate degree in Psychology from UCL, before deciding to pursue a PhD in Psychology as Applied to Medicine at the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at King’s College London. After my PhD, which investigated gene-environment correlations and interactions in child and adolescent depression, I took up a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health in the US. This fellowship involved exploring the role of genetic variants on neural circuits and information-processing. I was then appointed Lecturer in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, where I started the Researching Emotional Disorders and Development Lab.

In 2013, I moved back to King’s College London in the Psychology Department, before joining to co-direct the Youth Resilience Unit at Queen Mary, University of London. At QM, I am Principal Investigator on a number of externally funded projects exploring mechanisms of and interventions for child and adolescent anxiety, depression and loneliness. More recently, I have become interested in the role of social connections in building resilience, well-being and good health in young people but also people with serious mental illness. This work has been funded through UKRI.

Research

Research Interests:

I am interested in a better understanding of the risk mechanisms contributing towards anxiety, depression and loneliness, as they emerge across childhood and adolescence. I am also interested in how we can translate knowledge from basic science findings to the development of more targeted interventions, co-producing this with young people with lived experiences of these emotional problems and relevant stakeholders. I am interested in a multi-disciplinary and cross-sector approach.

Publications

To view my complete list of publications, please visit my ORCHID page.

Outstanding publications

• Bang, D., Haller, S., Bahrami, B. & Lau, J.Y. (2018). Group decision-making is optimal in adolescence. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 15565.
• Cohen Kadosh, K., Linden, D. E.J. & Lau, J. Y. (2013). Plasticity during childhood and adolescence: innovative approaches to investigating neurocognitive development. Developmental Science. 16(4):574-583. 
• Lau, J. Y. F.,Shariff, R., & Meehan, A. J. (2021). Are biased interpretations of ambiguous social and nonsocial situations a precursor, consequence or maintenance factor of youth loneliness? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 140, [103829].
• Lau, Y. F., & Waters, A. (2017). Annual Research Review: An expanded account of information-processing mechanisms in risk for child and adolescent anxiety and depression. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(4), 387-407. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.12653
• Pile V, Winstanley A, Oliver A, Bennett E, Lau JYF. (2021). Targeting image-based autobiographical memory in childhood to prevent emotional disorders: Intervention development and a feasibility randomised controlled trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 144:103913. 

Supervision

Primary Supervisor:

Aisling Murray: Using embodied inquiry to explore resilience during childhood with families from underserved communities in London, UK (Barts and The London Charity)

Alina Marinca: Exploring the Relationship Between Sleep Problems and Behavioural and Emotional Symptoms in Children from Deprived and often Marginalised Communities (London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (LISS) DTP)

Anna Tarasenko: (NIHR)

Eleanor Keiller: Developing our understanding of dramatherapy for children and young people with emotional distress (Barts and The London Charity)

Joely Wright: (London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (LISS) DTP)

Mariana Steffen: Social Prescribing for Children and Young People with mental health- difficulties (London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (LISS) DTP)

Mollie Wallen: Discovering the role of sports in challenging children’s behavioural problems (London Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (LISS) DTP)

Students based outside QMUL:

Lauren Burke: Tackling Youth Loneliness: From Lived Experiences to Evidence-Based Interventions and Shifting Loneliness Profiles Over Time, based at University of Manchester

Diany Syafitri: Investigation of and Intervention Development for Psychological Help-Seeking Among Indonesian Adults, based at King’s College London

Xiaohuang He: Transitioning to adulthood in China and the UK: a cross-cultural study of transition stress and mental health in emerging adults, based at King’s College London,