PhD project summary:
This project examines how food insecurity – the lack of regular access to enough safe and nutritious food – influences children’s development, affecting their chances of doing well at school and reducing opportunities later in life.
Although the UK is a high-income country, household food insecurity has been steadily rising. In 2023/24, 7.5 million people across the UK were identified as food insecure with food bank use increasing by 89% (Commons Briefing 2025). London presents striking health inequalities and contrasts across boroughs, and children in East London face the highest levels of inadequate food access in the city. In the Borough of Newham, about one-third of children are food insecure. These local variations in food insecurity provide a powerful tool for exploring the global challenge of urban food insecurity — shaped by culture, austerity, and social policy — and how it affects children’s development. This aligns closely with RA1’s goal of innovating health through social, cultural, and biomedical perspectives to address global inequalities.
Food insecurity has profound implications for both physical and mental health. Poor access to nutritious food can lead to malnutrition and obesity, but also contributes to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and social withdrawal (Whitaker et al 2006; Dirks, 1980), making children less likely to do well academically and more likely to drop out of school, reinforcing cycles of disadvantage. Understanding how food insecurity affects cognition- particularly children’s ability to remember information and pay attention- and mental health is therefore critical for developing targeted, equitable, and sustainable interventions. But location also plays a defining role in shaping food experiences and outcomes. For example, paradoxically food insecurity is often associated with higher rates of obesity, often due to reliance on cheaper, poor-quality food (Carvajal-Aldaz et al. 2022; Pineda et al. 2024). East London — marked by ethnic diversity, gentrification, and uneven access to healthy affordable food — offers a window into the complex environment within which families navigate food insecurity. Therefore, working in partnership with Newham local authority, and further supported by Tower Hamlets local authority and Tower Hamlets Food Partnership the project will:
i) Bring together what is known about how food insecurity affects children’s cognition, mental health, and their social skills.
(ii) Use validated questionnaires and tasks to understand how much food children have access to, and to measure their cognition, mental health, and their social skills using computer tasks (e.g. Michalek et al. 2024).
(iii) Complete a pilot study to evaluate how well “breakfast clubs” — local programs that give free breakfasts to children from low-income families — are working.
(iv) Hold focus groups with children and run creative art based workshops to learn about their experiences with food and their hopes for the future.
Although the research is situated in East London, food insecurity is a global challenge, and results from this project have the potential to inform our understanding of children’s brain development, and to help policymakers in national and international governments make decisions on investment in child nutrition and education.
Research Environment
This PhD will be based in the Centre for Brain and Behaviour at Queen Mary University of London, within the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences (SBBS). The school is recognised as one of the UK’s leading research centres (REF 2014) and provides a multi-disciplinary, supportive environment with around 160 PhD students across the biological and psychological sciences.
Our Psychology Department is lively and expanding, with regular departmental seminars, student-led journal clubs, and workshops that create plenty of opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and feedback to strengthen your work. Queen Mary also offers excellent training and career development programmes to help you build a broad skill set for your future career.
PhD students follow a 3-year programme with clear milestones, including talks, posters, and symposia, which help develop strong research communication skills. The department has an excellent completion rate, reflecting the supportive training environment. Students also have opportunities to co-supervise undergraduate projects, gaining valuable teaching and mentoring experience.
My group has particular expertise in mental health and adversity in children and adults – providing an ideal environment for this project. I also have strong research and NGOs collaborations within the UK and abroad, offering further opportunities and connections for the PhD student. https://www.qmul.ac.uk/sbbs/staff/isabellemareschal.html
Find out more about the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences on our website.
Entry Requirements & Criteria
We are looking for candidates to have or expecting to receive a first or upper-second class honours degree and a Master’s degree in an area relevant to the project such as Psychology, Nutrition, Public Health, Biology, Neuroscience. Candidates must also have experience conducting research. Working with children or community engagement experience is desirable.
Knowledge of psychology experimental methods (e.g. psychophysiscs), statistics and mental health would be highly advantageous but are not required.
Find out more about our entry requirements here.
Supervisor(s):
Isabelle Mareschal: i.mareschal@qmul.ac.uk
Oyinlola Oyebode: o.oyebode@qmul.ac.uk
Paul Heritage: p.heritage@qmul.ac.uk
CASE non-academic partner: Newham Centre for Health and Care Equity: https://www.newham.gov.uk/health-adult-social-care/newham-centre-equity-health-care
LISS Institution: Queen Mary University of London, Faculty of Science and Engineering, School of Biological and Behavioural Science
PhD Programme: PhD in Psychology
Full-time / Part-time: Full-time
1+3.5 or +3.5 studentship: Either
Fee Eligibility: Home‑eligible applicants only (UKRI eligibility guidance)
How to apply:
To apply, please complete and return the documents below to the project supervisor(s) directly:
- LISS DTP CASE application form
- Your CV
- A 300-500 word synthesis of the role of food insecurity on child development and mental health
- A Personal Statement, including:
- Previous experience relevant to the project
- Your motivations for pursuing this position
- Your career aspirations
- Any further information you think is relevant to the application
- References
- Copies of academic transcripts and degree certificates
- Academic transcripts
Additionally, all applicants must complete:
- LISS DTP Diversity Monitoring Form (online)
Closing date for applications: 23rd January 2026
Interviews date: two weeks after the application deadline