School of Health & Wellbeing

Dr Christina Thurston

  • HBSC Research Associate (Mental Health & Wellbeing)

Biography

Christina is a Research Associate at the University of Glasgow, working on the WHO Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study. Her current work focuses on understanding the health and wellbeing of children and young people in Scotland within a broader international context. Christina has extensive experience in quantitative research and analysis, particularly in relation to contextually-sensitive measures of childhood adversity, mental health, and evaluating the role of social protection interventions in mitigating long-term mental health outcomes.

Before joining the University of Glasgow, Christina completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. Her doctoral thesis, embedded within the ERC-funded INTERRUPT_VIOLENCE project in South Africa, explored how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) shape adult mental health outcomes, and whether social protection interventions in the form of cash transfers can mitigate poor mental health in low-resource, high-ACE contexts. During her subsequent research fellowship on the same project, she explored identifying "interrupters" of the intergenerational continuity of violence.

Christina has a strong track record of working in interdisciplinary and international teams, with collaborations across academia, NGOs, and policy. Her research is driven by a commitment to producing evidence that can directly inform policy and practice, improving health and wellbeing outcomes for children and families.

Alongside her academic career, Christina has practitioner experience, where she worked one-to-one with children and families in the field of child protection. This frontline experience continues to shape her research, grounding it in the realities of children and young people and strengthening her focus on policy and practice impact.

Christina is a convenor for the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect's Network for Emerging eXperTise in Child Protection (ISPCAN NEXT)

Research interests

  1. Mental health
  2. Context specific adverse childhood experiences 
  3. Social protection interventions 
  4. Social determinants of health 
  5. Intergenerational transmission of violence 
  6. Protective and interrupting factors 
  7. Child and adolescent health behaviours

Publications

Prior publications

Article

Christina Thurston, Aja Louise Murray, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Khudejha Asghar, Franziska Meinck (2026) Patterns of contextually sensitive adverse childhood experiences and associations with adult mental health outcomes in a longitudinal South African community sample: a latent class analysis Child Abuse & Neglect Christina Thurston. ISSN 0145-2134 (doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2026.108121)

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Pam Maluleke, Franziska Meinck, Nicola Christofides, Christina Thurston, Khudejha Asghar, Nataly Woollett (2026) Child-reported violence, beliefs, and mental health: A cross-sectional quantitative study of 6–17-year-olds in South Africa Child Abuse & Neglect Christina Thurston. ISSN 0145-2134 (doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2026.107887)

Nataly Woollett, Pamela Maluleke, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Nicola Christofides, Mpho Silima, Christina Thurston, Kopano Monaisa, Khudejha Asghar, Franziska Meinck (2026) Understanding how violence is transmitted across generations: An in-depth multiple case study of families in South Africa. Psychology of Violence Christina Thurston. ISSN 2152-0828 (doi: 10.1037/vio0000602)

Khudejha Asghar, Nicola Christofides, Nataly Woollet, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Christina Thurston, Franziska Meinck (2026) The Intergenerational Continuity of Parenting Behaviors: A Longitudinal Cohort Study of Female Adolescents in South Africa Crossref. (doi: 10.2139/ssrn.6410298)

Christina Thurston, Aja Louise Murray, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Franziska Meinck (2025) Patterns of Adverse Childhood Experiences from a Longitudinal South African Community Sample: A Latent Class Analysis International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice Crossref. (doi: 10.1007/s42448-025-00231-5)

Nataly Woollett, Pamela Maluleke, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Nicola Christofides, Christina Thurston, Khudejha Asghar, Mpho Silima, Kopano Monaisa, Franziska Meinck (2025) How Does the Mother-Daughter Relationship Explain Patterns of Intergenerational Violence? Findings from a Multigenerational Study in South Africa Journal of Family Violence Christina Thurston. ISSN 1573-2851 (doi: 10.1007/s10896-025-01012-x)

Christina Thurston, Aja Louise Murray, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Mpho Silima, Chad Lance Hemady, Franziska Meinck (2025) Prospective Longitudinal Associations Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental Health Outcomes: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Trauma, Violence, & Abuse Crossref. (doi: 10.1177/15248380251358223)

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Nataly Woollett, Christina Thurston, Pamela Maluleke, Nicola Christofides, Franziska Meinck (2025) “They should ask me so that they can help me”: Patterns of young children's expressed feelings and beliefs when interviewed about violence and difficult experiences Child Abuse & Neglect Christina Thurston. ISSN 0145-2134 (doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106932)

Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Nicola Christofides, Nataly Woollett, Ansie Fouche, Mpho Silima, Christina Thurston, Kopano Monaisa, Franziska Meinck (2023) Conducting Violence Research Across Multiple Family Generations and with Young Children: Findings from a Mixed-Methods Pilot Study in South Africa International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice Crossref. (doi: 10.1007/s42448-023-00157-w)

Christina Thurston, Aja Louise Murray, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Franziska Meinck (2023) Prospective longitudinal associations between adverse childhood experiences and adult mental health outcomes: a protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis Systematic Reviews Crossref. (doi: 10.1186/s13643-023-02330-1)

Xinxin Zhu et al. (2023) Daily life emotion regulation processes as transdiagnostic predictors of mental health symptoms: An ecological momentary assessment study Crossref. (doi: 10.31234/osf.io/2zc9u)

Franziska Meinck, Nataly Woollett, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Mpho Silima, Christina Thurston, Ansie Fouché, Kopano Monaisa, Nicola Christofides (2022) Interrupting the intergenerational cycle of violence: protocol for a three-generational longitudinal mixed-methods study in South Africa (INTERRUPT_VIOLENCE) Crossref. (doi: 10.1101/2022.11.29.22282893)

Christina Thurston, Aja Louise Murray, Hannabeth Franchino-Olsen, Franziska Meinck (2022) An Exploration of Prospective Longitudinal Associations between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental Health Outcomes: A Protocol for a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Crossref. (doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-1323710/v1)

(2021) The Associations Between Maternal Adverse Childhood Experiences, Substance Use During Pregnancy and Poor Infant Outcomes: A Protocol for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis [] Christina Thurston. (doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-457143/v2)

Book Section

Allen Thurston, Christina Thurston (2023) Developing Reciprocal Peer Tutoring in Irish Medium Schools Crossref. (doi: 10.4324/9781003268192-15)