Professor Lucy Bowes

Background

Lucy’s research focuses on the impact of early life stress on psychological and behavioural development. In particular, Lucy has focused on the effects of victimization on young people’s adjustment and wellbeing. Her research integrates methods from social epidemiology, developmental psychology and behavioural genetics in order to understand the complex genetic and environmental influences that promote resilience to victimization and early life stress. The aim of her work is to guide intervention work by identifying protective factors that promote positive outcomes among vulnerable children.

Career history

Lucy graduated with a BA Hons in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University in 2004. She was awarded a PhD in Behavioural Genetics in 2011 from the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. Lucy is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the Department of Experimental Psychology, and was appointed as a Fellow of Magdalen College in 2014. She tutors in prelims Psychology and Part 1 Individual Differences and Psychological Disorders. Lucy has received awards from the Medical Research Council and the Economic and Social Research Council, UK. Her research on school bullying has been supported by the Jacobs Foundation, and her current work on resilience to harsh, non-supportive parenting is supported by a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship.

Selected publications

• Bowes, L., Wolke, D., Joinson, C., Lereya, S. T., & Lewis, G. (2014). Sibling bullying and risk of depression, anxiety, and self-harm: a prospective cohort study. Pediatrics, peds-2014.
• Bowes, L., Ball, H., Maughan, B., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T.E. & Arseneault, L. (2013) ‘Chronic bullying victimization across school transitions: the role of genetic and environmental influences’ Development & Psychopathology, vol. 25, pp333-516.
• Bowes, L. & Jaffee, S.R. (2013) ‘Biology, genes and resilience: towards a multidisciplinary approach’ (in press)Trauma, Violence & Abuse
• Bowes, L. and Arseneault, L. (2011) ‘Resilience among young victims of bullying’ International Acceptance, Newsletter of the International Society for Interpersonal Acceptance and Rejection, vol. 51, pp809-817
• Bowes, L, Maughan, B., Caspi, A., Moffitt, T.E. & Arseneault, L. (2010) ‘Families promote emotional and behavioural resilience to bullying: Evidence of an environmental effect’ Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 51, pp809-817.
• Arseneault, L., Bowes, L., and Shakoor, S. (2010) ‘Bullying victimisation in youths and mental health problems: “Much ado about nothing”?’ Psychological Medicine, vol. 40, pp717-29
• Bowes, L., Arseneault, L., Maughan, B., Taylor, A., Caspi, A., & Moffin, T.E. (2009) ‘School, neighbourhood and family factors are associated with children’s bullying involvement: A nationally-representative longitudinal study’ Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 48, pp545-553.