Barbara Dooley

Barbara Dooley is a Professor in the School of Psychology, University College Dublin. She is currently the UCD Acting Registrar & Deputy President. She was also Director of Research for Headstrong - The National Centre for Youth Mental Health from 2007-2016. Barbara’s particular expertise is in the area of applied psychological research designs and statistical analyses focusing on youth mental health. She has been involved in a number of large scale national studies estimating prevalence of psychological problems in young people e.g. eating disorders, depression. She is particularly interested in how help-seeking behaviour is linked to psychological issues such stress, depression, alcohol consumption, self-esteem and social support. In 2012 she published, with Associate Professor Amanda Fitzgerald, the My World Survey, the first national study of youth mental health in Ireland http://researchrepository.ucd.ie/handle/10197/4286. The report presented the findings of a very large sample of young people in Ireland (N> 14,000) aged 12-25 years and studied both the risk and the protective factors. In 2019, she published My World Survey 2, with Associate Professor Amanda Fitzgerald, Dr Aileen O'Reilly and Dr Cliodhna O'Connor. This was a second wave of data collection on youth mental health in Ireland with a sample of > 19,000 young people aged 12-25 years. My World Survey 2 again focused on the risk and protective factors linked to young people's mental health http://myworldsurvey.ie/.