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Jo Lysons
Fellow

Dr Jo Lysons

Bye Fellow; Research Associate, 鶹Ƶ; Independent Visiting Researcher, Centre for Child, Adolescent and Family Research, University of Cambridge

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Degrees

  • PhD in Developmental Psychology, University of Cambridge
  • MSc in Child Development, UCL Institute of Education
  • PG Cert in Child Development, UCL Institute of Education
  • BA in English and Philosophy, University of York

Awards & Prizes

  • American Society for Reproductive Medicine, International conference 2020 - Mental Health Professional Group, prize paper award
  • UCL Institute of Education 2016 - Prakesh de Silva Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement

Research Interests

  • Family and child psychology
  • Psychosocial functioning in non-traditional and modern family forms
  • Measuring early childhood development
  • Social media use and mental health in adolescents

Biography

Jo Lysons was appointed to 鶹Ƶ in the position of Research Associate in April 2024, to lead a project investigating women and non-binary students’ wellbeing and experiences of teaching and learning at Cambridge. Dr Lysons completed her PhD in developmental psychology at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge. Her work has focused on psychosocial functioning in families created via gamete donation and other non-traditional family forms, investigating parents’ and children’s mental health and psychosocial adjustment, the quality of parent-child relationships in these families, and children’s perceptions of their families. 

Dr Lysons’ research interests also include development, learning, and education over the life-course; previous projects have focused on evaluating the assessment of early child development within the Health Visiting system in England (in collaboration with the Children and Families Policy Research Unit, UCL), and investigating gender differences in social media use, sleep quality, and mental health amongst British adolescents.

Authored work

  • Selected publications:

    Lysons, J. & Blake, L. Assisted Reproductive Technologies in A. E. Goldberg (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopaedia of LGBTQ Studies, 2nd Edition. Sage Publications, 2024.

     

    Lysons, J., Imrie, S., Jadva, V., & Golombok, S. Families created via identity-release egg donation: disclosure and an exploration of donor threat in early childhood. Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 2023, 

     

    Lysons, J. Méndez Pineda, R., Alarcon, G., Aquino, MRJ., Cann, H., Fearon, P., Kendall, S., & Woodman, J. Measuring child development at the 2-2½ year health and development review: a review of available tools, stakeholder priorities, and learning to support successful implementation of a tool for routine health care use. CPRU, 2024. 

     

    Imrie, S., Lysons, J., Jadva, V., Foley, S., & Golombok, S. A longitudinal study of families created using egg donation: family functioning at age 5. Journal of Family Psychology, 2023, 37(8): 1253-1265, 

      

    Lysons. J., Imrie, S., Jadva, V., & Golombok, S. “I’m the only mum she knows”: Parents’ understanding of, and feelings about, identity-release egg donation. Human Reproduction, 2022; 37(10): 2426-2437,