Susan Swingler is a DPhil student in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation with an interest in social epidemiology, developmental psychopathology, and the evaluation of interventions that aim to promote child and family well-being.
Susan’s DPhil research focuses on the biological and psychosocial mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of violence. She is examining the role of cortisol stress reactivity in pathways from childhood violence exposure to longer-term adolescent conduct problems and violence perpetration, leveraging data from the South African Thula Sana birth cohort study. Her research methodologies include systematic review and meta-analysis, longitudinal data analysis, and randomised controlled trials. Susan's work is supervised by Professor Jane Barlow and Professor Mark Tomlinson and is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
Her prior work has included mixed-method formative evaluations of child protection, education, and youth development interventions in South Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Iraq. She has worked with organizations such as UNICEF and the British Red Cross. Susan holds an MPhil in Programme Evaluation and a BSocSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Cape Town and Rhodes University.
