With a research background in child and adolescent mental health and development, Prof Sarah Skeen, associate professor and co-director of the Institute for Life Course Health Research at the Department of Global Health, has been at the forefront of developing, implementing and evaluating community-based interventions across East and Southern Africa.

As part of commemorating South Africa's Women's Month, she tells us more about her research.

Please tell us more about your research?

I am a public health researcher who focuses on child and adolescent mental health and development. Most of my work has focused on mental health, children affected by HIV, early childhood development and parenting interventions in low-resource contexts.

Why or how did you become interested in this specific area of research?

I was first exposed to community health projects during my undergraduate studies, and then studied public health at postgraduate level. I have always been interested in mental health and entered the global health field in the late 2000s, just as mental health was gaining prominence as a global priority. I am fortunate that I am able to bring together many of my interrelated interests in my current position, including prevention and early intervention, child and adolescent development, parenting and caregiver support, HIV and community health. Every research project brings a new angle or challenge, and it is very rewarding to learn from each one and apply it to the next. I am also the mother of two small children, so sometimes I even get to take the lessons I learn at work home with me!

You recently received a research grant to the value of £638 050 (R12,5 million) from the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council. The funds will be used to conduct a gender-transformative sexual and reproductive health intervention study. Tell us more about this?

The project, “If I Were Thabo", aims to prevent unintended adolescent pregnancy and HIV transmission. What is particularly unique is that it is aimed at adolescent boys, and uses a gender-transformative approach, meaning that it is focused on subverting some of the gender stereotypes that usually become entrenched during adolescence. One of the key features of the intervention programme is a dramatised short film that puts adolescents in the shoes of an adolescent boy who discovers that his girlfriend is pregnant. It intends to get them thinking about what they would do in his situation.

Several partners are involved in this study. Can you elaborate on this?

The project is based on the initiative called “If I Were Jack" in the United Kingdom (UK). It is co-led by Dr Aine Aventin at Queen's University Belfast. We are working closely with the UK-based team as well as partners in South Africa and Lesotho to adapt the intervention for the South African context, and to test the two versions in a randomised controlled trial in school and non-governmental organisation settings in 2022.

How will this study help address gender inequality?

Unequal gender norms play a huge part in HIV risk and unintended pregnancy. Yet very few sexual and reproductive health programmes use gender-transformative approaches with men and boys as a means to address this. Men and boys are essential partners in our efforts to bring about gender equality, and this study aims to show that this is a meaningful and effective approach to take.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and live. What keeps you motivated during these times?

In the early days of the pandemic, there was a lot of talk of how it would create the circumstances to rebuild a fairer and more equal world. The reality has been very different, and every day is a stark reminder that some lives 'matter' more than others. This has been a huge motivator for me, and I think the importance of the type of work we do at the Institute for Life Course Health Research has really been highlighted by what has happened in the past 18 months. Children and adolescents will still be feeling the impact of the pandemic for years to come. This has forced us to think more creatively about how to support the families we work with in a meaningful way, particularly in these difficult circumstances. And we are having some success. For example, we have just finished a project where we used WhatsApp-based support groups in three countries to support parents remotely, and found that the approach worked very well.

What would your message be to the next generation of women researchers?

Personally, I find it inspiring to see leading women researchers in action. It makes me feel that it is possible to go further and achieve goals that sometimes seem out of reach or perhaps better suited to others. Representation really matters. History is littered with stories of women scientists and researchers whose contributions are invisible, ignored or misattributed. It is important that women step forward and claim their space. I benefit greatly from working with an extremely talented and committed team of mainly women, and I look forward to each of them becoming leaders in their fields one day.​