We invite applications for a 3.5-year LISS DTP CASE PhD Studentship opportunity in the Mohn Centre for Children’s Health & Wellbeing.
We are seeking an outstanding candidate for a PhD in “Impacts of smartphone and social media use on educational attainment in adolescents”.
Research Project
The project aim is to create new evidence on how smartphone and social media use may influence secondary school exam results: by examining quantitatively and qualitatively the longitudinal relationship between smartphone/social media use and secondary education attainment, how this is mediated by health and behaviours, and the role of smartphone/social media use in academic attainment inequalities.
Health and education are strongly linked throughout our lives. Poorer health in childhood and adolescence is associated with missing school and achieving lower exam scores. Lower exam scores negatively influence lifelong career prospects and health.
There is public concern about the impact smartphones and social media may have on young people. Many schools are currently considering their smartphone policies, and there are growing movements to support ‘smartphone free’ childhoods.
There is some evidence that using smartphones and social media is associated with achieving lower scores in school and university exams. But the evidence is neither certain nor sufficient to say whether smartphones or social media actually cause lower exam scores. We also do not know a lot about how smartphone and social media use are linked to lower exam scores. They could affect exam scores via intermediate factors such as mental and physical health, cognition, sleep, cyberbullying, and missing school. We need better evidence so that we can understand the most effective ways to improve children and young people’s educational outcomes, and thus their lifelong health and wellbeing.
Mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) will be used to generate this new evidence.
The project uses information from the Study of Cognition, Adolescence and Mobile Phones (SCAMP). SCAMP has collected information on smartphone and social media use, mental and physical health, cognition, lifestyle and school exam results for 7000 participants across Greater London, throughout secondary school. This information will be analysed to investigate if smartphone and social media use are linked to subsequent exam results, and potential factors that may explain any link. The project will also investigate whether smartphone and social media use can explain links between socio-economic status and exam results, to understand if it contributes to inequalities in education outcomes for young people. The project will also look at information collected via other studies, to check results are similar in other populations of young people.
The project will also explore young people’s thoughts and feelings about how smartphones and social media influences their education. It will include young people whose voices are not often heard. It will gather and study audio recordings from interviews and group discussions with young people. The goal is to understand their opinions and experiences around the issue. A process called thematic analysis will be used to find patterns and uncover meanings. This approach gathers rich detail, which will enhance the understanding of findings from the analysis of SCAMP information.
Young people will be involved throughout the project via the SCAMP Young People’s Advisory Group to inform research design, interpretation and sharing of knowledge.
The project findings will be informative for health and education policy to improve children and young people’s life chances. The project is partnering with the Department for Education, and Hammersmith & Fulham Council, which brings opportunities for the findings of this work to influence national policy and local practice. The student will undertake a placement with one of these partner organisations.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a strong background in health and social sciences, or epidemiology, or education to make a leading contribution to cutting-edge research.
The successful applicant will:
- Conduct a literature review of smartphone and social media use in relation to academic attainment.
- Conduct advanced statistical analyses to explore the relationship between smartphone and social media use and secondary education attainment, including how this is mediated by health and behavioural factors; and to explore the influence of smartphone and social media use on the associations between individual and area-level socioeconomic status and academic attainment.
- Recruit secondary school students to participate in qualitative research; collect qualitative data exploring young peopleʼs lived experience of how smartphone/social media influences and interacts with their education; and conduct thematic analysis of qualitative data to identify emerging themes.
- Work with young people and project partners to translate and disseminate findings.
Research Environment
The Mohn Centre for Children's Health and Wellbeing has been established following a £25M gift from Marit Mohn to establish a new world-leading centre for children’s health and wellbeing in the School of Public Health. The mission of the Mohn Centre is to be an international resource and centre of excellence for research and capacity building in the field of children’s mental and physical health in urban environments, and the translation of this knowledge to inform national and international policies to improve life-long health. Working in the Mohn Centre, the successful candidate will benefit from a research environment which draws together expertise from across Imperial College London. The successful student will be based in the new School of Public Health building at Imperial’s White City Campus.
This project is supervised by Dr Rachel Smith and Professor Dougal Hargreaves.
The project is offered as full-time only.
Eligibility
Essential criteria:
- A relevant Master's degree in addition to a Bachelor's degree with a UK First- or Upper Second-Class honours grade or overseas qualifications of equivalent standard, in a relevant quantitative science/social science subject
- Strong statistical skills
- Candidates are required to meet English language requirements (Higher level) unless exempt
Desirable criteria:
- Experience in public health, epidemiology, and/or education research
- Experience in conducting quantitative and/or qualitative research
- Knowledge of, or an interest in, public health policy and/or education policy
- Experience with relevant methodological software (e.g., R, Stata, NVivo)
- Experience of working with/communicating with young people
The studentship: The LISS DTP studentship provides funding for 3.5 years, including UKRI home tuition fees, and a tax-free stipend of £21,237 per year. As part of your award, you will be able to apply to the DTP for additional funding to support costs of training, fieldwork, conferences and more. Students must undertake a 3 month placement with one of the project’s partner organisations, and must submit their thesis, within their funded 3.5 year period.
International (including EU) applicants will only be considered if they are able to fund the difference between UKRI Home tuition fees and the host Department’s International fee themselves. School of Public Health postgraduate research tuition fees are detailed here for information.
Nationality and residency requirements for Home and International students can be found in UKRI-170321-InternationalEligibilityImplementationGuidance.pdf. Please read this document to determine whether you will be classed as a Home or International student.
Application process
The following documents should be completed and provided by email to mohncentre@imperial.ac.uk quoting ‘LISS DTP application – Smartphones & Educational Attainment’ in the subject line.
- Completed Smartphones and Educational Attainment LISS DTP PhD Application Form
- Completed CASE Application Form 2025
- Up to date CV (max 2 pages. If you have scientific publications, include with URL links)
- English testing results, i.e. IELTS or TOFEL (if not exempt).
- Undergraduate and Master’s degree transcripts with average grades.
- The following online form must also be completed:
Incomplete applications (incomplete forms/missing documents) will not be considered. There is some duplication of information between this form and the ‘CASE Application Form_2025 Entry’, but you must complete both forms in full as they are required by separate organisations. Please do not cross-reference between these forms e.g. ‘see information given on other form’.
The closing date for applications is 23:59 UK time on 26th February 2025. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview. Interviews will be held between 12th-19th March, exact date to be confirmed. The successful candidate must start their PhD no later than 1st October 2025.
The successful candidate will be required to complete a DBS check upon commencing the project.
If you have queries about the project, please contact rachel.smith05@imperial.ac.uk.
The Mohn Centre for Children’s Health and Wellbeing is committed to equality of opportunity.