Caroline is a Senior Research Associate and Cancer Research UK Population Research Postdoctoral Fellow working at Bristol Medical School. Her fellowship explores the longitudinal patterns, predictors and outcomes of multiple cancer risk behaviours during adolescence. These are modifiable behaviours including tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, overweight and obesity, unhealthy diet and risky sexual behaviour that are associated with cancer incidence and mortality. Rather than focussing on specific cancers this research covers a wide range of cancers that are associated with these exposures. She uses two British cohort studies, the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), in her research.

Caroline is also PI on a Cancer Research UK Innovation Grant: E-MUte - Examining Prevalence, Mechanism of action and Effects of E-cigarette Misinformation on Twitter and Google Search Results. She collaborates with research partners in America on this project to (1) develop a valid and reliable algorithm to determine inaccurate risk perception information about the use of e-cigarettes viewed by adult smokers on the internet, using machine learning modelling  techniques, and (2) assess the effect of e-cigarette misinformation exposure on Twitter and Google Search on smokers’ intentions to quit and purchase e-cigarettes; and examine the mechanisms of action through knowledge and beliefs about e-cigarette use, using a randomized controlled experimental design.

As well as an interest in health risk behaviours, Caroline has conducted several large research projects, including her PhD, on educational participation in England. Before working in academia, Caroline worked as an educational practitioner and so has worked extensively within schools and with children, young people and their families.