BA (Psych), MA (Crit Psych), GradDipPH , PhD Senior Research Fellow; ASPIRE 2025, HePPRU
Contact details
Email jude.ball@otago.ac.nz
Research interests and activities
Jude is a senior research fellow affiliated to the ASPIRE Aotearoa tobacco control research centre, HePPRU, and the Adolescent Health Research Group (the team behind the Youth 2000 survey series). She joined the Department in November 2014 with a background in critical psychology, health promotion and applied research. She completed a PhD in 2019 exploring the drivers of long-term trends in adolescent risk behaviour, in particular smoking, cannabis use, binge drinking and sexual behaviour. Her research focuses on the impact of the changing social context on youth trends, and the inter-relationships between smoking and other risk behaviours in young people. Alcohol and drug harm and mental health promotion are also areas of research interest.
Current projects include:
- A qualitative project investigating the change function and meaning of substance use (and non-use) in young people’s lives (Funding: Marsden Fast Start).
Adolescent Friendships and Lifestyles Study - Leading the young adult strand of the EASE cohort study of smokers and recent quitters (Funding: HRC Programme Grant), and contributing the ITC Youth survey which launched in NZ in 2023
- Investigating latent need for early intervention to address tobacco, e-cigarette, alcohol and drug use among secondary students (Funding: Health Promotion Agency)
- A project appraising New Zealand’s monitoring system for youth substance use (Funding: Health Promotion Agency)
- Investigation of trends in alcohol harm