BU Research Blog

The textbook winner for the British Psychological Society Book Award 2017 is Child Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Perspective by Professor Julie Turner-Cobb. It is the first textbook to focus specifically on child health psychology, taking an interdisciplinary and life-course perspective and drawing on theories and models within.

The Society’s Book Award recognises excellent published work in psychology. Professor Julie Turner-Cobb said she was absolutely delighted to win the award and thrilled that her book has received great recognition and positive reception as a result. She was first nominated for the award by one of her PhD students based at the University of Bath: “They are a big supporter of the book and were inspired to do their PhD as a result of an issue raised in the chapter that addresses the experience of being a young carer. It was a nice surprise and a huge compliment to be nominated.”

Child Health Psychology: A Biopsychosocial Perspective is primarily targeted at postgraduate students on MSc Health Psychology programmes but is also relevant to students taking final year undergraduate units in health psychology and related areas. Beyond this, the textbook is also relevant across a number of health disciplines outside of psychology where a biopsychosocial perspective on child health is being considered.

“There was no textbook devoted to health psychology as applied to children. I wanted to bring it together to highlight it and provide a child health focus for health psychology as a discipline.”

The first part of the book covers topics related to events and circumstances that can influence a child’s health during childhood and adolescence including the prenatal environment; whilst the second part examines how children cope when they are ill, how they deal with pain, the experience of parental ill health and bereavement.

“It takes a strong biological stance in many respects, but also gives attention to psychosocial issues in relation to context and individual differences,” Professor Turner-Cobb said, “There is also a chapter in the first part of the book that examines methodological and ethical issues in child health psychology, that includes assessment using endocrine and immune biomarkers of stress but also discusses the utility of using a range of different paradigms and settings.”

Professor Turner-Cobb was inspired to write Child Health Psychology as she wanted to draw attention to the scope of work on psychological factors associated with child health. “There are a number of excellent textbooks on health psychology that have aspects covering child health and there are many textbooks devoted to developmental psychology, but there was no textbook devoted to health psychology as applied to children. I wanted to bring it together to highlight it and provide a child health focus for health psychology as a discipline.”

For more information about the book, please email Professor Julie Turner-Cobb (jturnercobb@bournemouth.ac.uk).