William Harvey Building
0845 196 4197
niamh.obrien@anglia.ac.uk

Qualifications & Memberships

• MSc Child development, Research and Policy
• BA Applied Social Studies in Social Care

• Member of the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN)
• Member of steering group for Researchingchildren.Org
• Member of Participation Works Network England (PWNE)
• Member of the University's CYRI

Outline of career

Niamh joined the university as a full-time researcher in March 2004, where she spent the first 2.5 years as lead researcher on a project funded by the Children's Fund. This project investigated the use and non-use of services provided to children, young people and their families in Essex. Since then Niamh has worked on a number of externally funded research projects.

Niamh is currently doing her PhD which is investigating bullying issues in a boarding school. She is using participatory Action Research methodology to actively involve school students as researchers.

Research Interests

Niamh has an interest in bullying research and participatory research methods. Niamh is one of the core members of the university's Participatory Research Group and her recent and current research includes:

2013: EssexFamily Tendring: An Evaluation of the Family Worker Service. Funded by Tendring District Council. (Led by Niamh O'Brien).

2012 - 2013: CSV volunteers in Child Protection Scheme: The first Southend Families, where are they now? Funded by Community Service Volunteers (Led by Dr Jane Akister)

2010 - 2011: Is the CSV Volunteers in Child Protection Scheme 'Value for Money'? Funded by Southend Borough Council (Led by Dr Jane Akister)

2010 - 2011: The impact of cyber-bullying on young people's mental health. Funded by The National Children's Bureau. (Led by Niamh O'Brien)

Selected Publications

O'Brien, N., and Moules, T., 2013. Not sticks and stones but tweets and texts: findings from a national cyberbullying project. Pastoral Care in Education, 31(1), pp.53-65.

Akister, J., and O'Brien, N., 2012. Combining State and Voluntary Provision: Using Volunteers in Home-Based Child Protection - Preliminary Indications for the Mental Wellbeing of Family Members. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 2(6), pp.226-240.

Moules, T., and O'Brien, N., 2012. Participation in perspective: reflections from research projects. Nurse Researcher, 19(2), pp.17-22.

O'Brien, N., 2009. Secondary school teachers' and pupils' definitions of bullying in the UK: a systematic review. Evidence & Policy, 5(4), pp.399-426.

Boyce, M., O'Brien, N., Munn-Giddings, C., and McVicar, A., 2009. How Does the Rhetoric of 'User Participation' in Research Apply to Older People? Research, Policy & Planning, 27(1), pp.55-63.

Munn-Giddings, C., McVicar, A., Boyce, M., and O'Brien, N., 2009. Older people as researchers - why not? An overview of a partnership project to train older people to be researchers. Working with Older People, 13(4), pp.16-19.

O'Brien, N., and Moules, T., 2007. 'So round the spiral again: a reflective participatory research project with children and young people'. Educational Action Research Journal, 15(3), pp.385-402.

Moules, T., and O'Brien, N., 2007. 'The child's perspective and service delivery'. In D. DeBell (ed) Public Health Practice & the School-Age Population, London: Hodder Arnold, pp.259-278.