SSM ECRs featuring… Dr Lizzy Winstone!
Lizzy Winstone is a Senior Research Associate at Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol.
 | Dr Lizzy Winstone University of Bristol Senior Research Associate SSM member since: 2020 SSM participation: 2021 ASM Topics of interest: Young people’s mental health, social media use, social connectedness |
What inspired you to pursue a career in public health?
After working as a survey methodologist for several years, I was keen to move into something more applied. I used to work as a health and social care researcher in local government, and wanted to combine the rigour and research community of academia with the meaningful impact of public health.
What excites you about working in research now?
I’m a mixed-methods researcher and I love learning about methodologies and statistical techniques that are new to me. For my PhD, I combined qualitative ideal-type analysis and quantitative latent class analysis to derive a mixed methods typology of adolescent social media users. In my current position, I’m running focus groups for the first time, and helping to set up an intensive longitudinal study using ecological momentary assessment. It’s exciting to feel as though I’m constantly adding to my methodological ‘toolbox’!
What area of social medicine/public health are you interested in?
I’m interested in public mental health and psychiatric epidemiology. It’s a fascinating, interdisciplinary field, drawing insights from epidemiology and public health, psychiatry, psychology, and sociology. My interest in social media use and mental health also combines this with media and communication studies.
Can you tell us a bit about a project you’re working on now?
I’m working with Dr Becky Mars on a really interesting project, which uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to assess daily fluctuations in self-harm and suicidal ideation, and their predictors. It’s a totally new area for me but EMA methods seem to be having a bit of a moment – more people are realising their potential for capturing data ‘in situ’ through repeated assessments throughout the day, over several days. This enhances ecological validity and reduces the recall bias often associated with retrospective surveys.
What do you hope this will lead to?
I’m hoping that this study will give me the tools to develop my own study using ecological momentary assessment to return to the topic of social media use and mental health. My PhD research suggests that broadcasting behaviour (sharing content on social media) might have specific implications for young people’s mental health and is currently underexplored. I’m keen to look at different patterns of broadcasting and whether these might predict fluctuations in mental health or well-being.
Bonus question from SSM member Natalie Bennett: What do you wish more people knew or understood about your research area?
I wish the discourse around social media use and young people’s mental health wasn’t so polarised. There’s a tendency in the media and in academia for people to either demonise social media, exaggerating its harms, or to brush off concerns because of a lack of evidence. The problem is that so much research still conceptualises ‘social media use’ as screen-time, often combining it with other digital activities. There is little strong evidence that screen-time has a large, detrimental impact on young people’s mental health, but that doesn’t mean that concerns about social media use are unwarranted. We need a more balanced narrative – one that takes into account the nuances of different social media platforms and activities – in order to produce useful guidance for parents and young people, beyond time limits.
To keep up to date with Lizzy, follow her on Twitter @lizzywinstone or get in touch via email.
SSM ECR features is a blog series that celebrates early career researchers. Each month we meet a member we admire, learn more about their work and find out what and who inspires them. To find out more visit socsocmed.org.uk/blog or email ecr.ssm@gmail.com.