Section: Research Student Profiles

Valeria Skafida

Name
Valeria Skafida
Organisation
Social Policy, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
Centre for Research on Families and Relationships 23 Buccleuch Place Edinburgh UK EH8 9LN
Telephone
+44 (0)131 651 3215
E-Mail
URL
http://www.socialpolicy.ed.ac.uk/student_profiles/skafida_valeria
Valeria Skafida

Research Interests

  • The social stratification of health behaviours and health inequalities
  • The sociology of health and illness and the sociology of food
  • Child nutrition, family meal habits and the social learning of taste
  • Public health policy and industry influence on public policy
  • Research using quantitative methods, longitudinal analysis of survey data

Employment

  • I was awarded a 3-year British Academy Post-doctoral Fellowship for the research project entitled: "An appetite for life? Changing food habits and health from infancy to childhood in the context of family life in Scotland". This project commenced in January 2012. I am co-based at the Centre for Population Health Sciences and the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at UoE, and mentored by Prof. Sarah Cunningham-Burley.
  • I was previously based at the University of Bath where I worked on the FP7 funded project PPACTE, looking at tobacco industry influence on government tobacco control policy, with Prof. Anna Gilmore. http://www.ppacte.eu/  

Qualifications

  • PhD in Social Policy (University of Edinburgh) 2007-2011
  • MSc by Research (with distinction) in Social Policy (University of Edinburgh) 2006-2007
  • MA (Hons) in Social Policy and Social Anthropology (University of Edinburgh) 2002-2006

PhD Thesis

Title: The Habits of a Lifetime?: Babies' diets and family life in Scotland

Topic: Valeria was awarded a CASE ESRC studentship with the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen) and the Centre for Research in Families and Relationships (CRFR). Her postgraduate research concerned the development of children's nutritional habits and child health within the context of the family. This was explored primarily through the Growing Up in Scotland longitudinal survey of young children from birth to age five. 

Supervisors: Fran Wasoff and Alison Koslowski (academic supervisors) and Paul Bradshaw (at the Scottish Centre for Social Research).

 

Publications & Reports

Skafida, V. (2012) 'Juggling work and motherhood: The impact of employment and maternity leave on breastfeeding duration - a survival analysis on Growing Up in Scotland Data' in Maternal and Child Health Journal (available here)

Skafida, V. (2011) ‘Construing or misconstruing families in research and the media’ in Jamieson, L., Simpson, R., Lewis, R. (eds.) Reflections on Researching Families and Relationships. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Skafida, V. (2010), ‘Wise advice: Exploring how parental use of formal and informal healthy eating advice affects children’s diets’ (conference abstract) in European Journal of Public Health 20(Supplement 1):45 

Skafida, V. (2009) 'The relative importance of social class and maternal education for breast-feeding initiation' in Public Health Nutrition 12(12):2285-92 (available here)

Marryat, L., Skafida, V., Webster, C. (2009) Growing Up in Scotland: Sweep 3 Food and Activity Report, Prepared for The Scottish Government: Children, Young People and Social Care Directorate by the Scottish Centre for Social Research (available here)

Skafida, V. (2008), 'Breastfeeding in Scotland: the impact of advice for mothers', Research Briefing, Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh.(available here)

Teaching and Consultancy  

Lectures/Tutorials 

Welfare Justice and the State

Core Quantitative Data Analysis

Social Policy and Society 

Politics of the Welfare State 

External

Design and delivery of advanced quantitative methods courses 

External links

CRFR
ScotCen
Growing Up in Scotland

 

This page was published on 23 April 2012


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