Dr. Marilyn Ahun
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Divisions of Clinical Epidemiology and Experimental Medicine
Dr. Ahun’s research focuses on the mechanisms through which parental mental health and parenting behaviours influence child development and mental health in global contexts. Using quantitative and qualitative research methods, she examines the mediators and moderators of the association between parental depression and child outcomes in both high-income and low- and middle-income countries, exploring the extent to which these associations vary – or do not – across different sociocultural contexts. She is currently leading a study in Ghana on the associations of maternal and paternal mental health with children's development and mental health and am working towards developing a multi-component parenting and mental health promotion intervention to promote parent and child outcomes. She also contributes to the design and evaluation of parenting interventions to promote early child development across West and East Africa.
- Formative research to inform the design of a multicomponent parenting and mental health promotion intervention to improve early child development and parent outcomes in Ghana
- Examining long-term psychosocial outcomes of exposure to parental depression in early childhood using administrative data in Canada
- Prevalence and correlates of mental health problems in young Ghanaian children and their parents