Role
Dr Vivienne Wenchong Du (DU Wen-Chong) is an Associate Professor of Psychology. She teaches on several modules in Child Psychology and Lifespan Psychology.
Career overview
Vivienne obtained her BSc. in Applied Psychology from Beijing Normal University and an MPhil in Educational Research (Neuroscience in Education) from the University of Cambridge (funded by Cambridge Overseas Trust). After several years working in consultancy, she then completed a PhD in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde (funded by Scottish Overseas Research Students Award Scheme, SORSAS).
Research areas
Dr. Vivienne Du's research interests are primarily in child health and sustainable health behaviours.
Vivienne has been very active in pursuing research in the field of child health where she has been working on cutting-edge research and innovation projects with a total value of over £1.6 million. Vivienne is the PI of several research projects involving large-scale nationwide population samples, with which she has been using advanced research methods to explore the mechanisms underlying motor difficulties in children. Vivienne also uses record linkage of large, routinely collected clinical data to study child health outcomes such as obesity, sleep, and neurodevelopment associated with urban environmental exposures and family sociodemographic diversities.
Vivienne is keen to apply her research to practice. Vivienne played critical roles in several community-based intervention programmes and she is also interested in using technologies including VR/XR and AI on the assessment and intervention of children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Vivienne is interested in supervising PhD students in the following research fields: environmental exposure and health; neurodevelopmental disorders and intervention; designing for children/elderly with special needs.
External activity
Vivienne collaborates with national and international leading academics in child impairments and child health, and she is the founding member and China representative at the International Society for Research in DCD (ISR-DCD).
Publications
(Selected publications; * corresponding author)
- Dai, X., Williams, G., Groeger, J., Jones, G., Brookes, K., Zhou, W., Hua, J., & Du, W*. (2024) The role of circadian rhythms and sleep in the aetiology of ASD and ADHD: New evidence from bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis. Autism. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613241258546
- Ren, T., Zhang, L., Liu, Y., Zhang, Q., Sun, Y., Zhou, W., Huang, L., Wang, M., Pu, Y., Huang, R., Chen, J., He, H., Zhu, T., Wang, S., Chen, W., Zhang, Q., Du, W*, Luo, Q., Li, F. (2024) Sex-specific associations of adolescent motherhood with cognitive function, behavioral problems, and autistic-like traits in offspring and the mediating roles of family conflict and altered brain structure. BMC Medicine, 22(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-024-03442-8
- Du, W*., & Hua, J. (2023). Preterm birth and developmental coordination disorder: What do we know and not know? Current Developmental Disorders Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-023-00282-8
- Hua, J., Lyu, J., Du W*., (2022). Prevalence of sleep disorder in Chinese preschoolers: A national population-based study. Nature and Science of Sleep, 14, 2091–2095. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S383209
- Lyu, J., Groeger, J. A., Barnett, A. L., Li, H., Wang, L., Zhang, J., Du, W*., (2022). Associations between gestational age and childhood sleep: A national retrospective cohort study. BMC Medicine, 20, Article 253. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02443-9
- Hua, J., Xie, J., Baker, C., Du, W*. (2022). National prevalence of excessive screen exposure in Chinese preschoolers. JAMA Network Open, 5(7), Article e2224244. https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.24244
- Hua, J., Barnett, A. L., Williams, G. J., Dai, X., Sun, Y., Li, H., Chen, G., Wang, L., Feng, J., Liu, Y., Zhang, L., Zhu, L., Weng, T., Guan, H., Gu, Y., Zhou, Y., Butcher, A., & Du, W*. (2021). Association of gestational age at birth with subsequent suspected developmental coordination disorder in early childhood. JAMA Network Open, 4(12), Article e2137581. https://doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.37581
- Du, W*., Ke, L., Wang, Y., Hua, J., Duan, W., & Barnett, A. L. (2020). The prenatal, postnatal, neonatal, and family environmental risk factors for developmental coordination disorder: A study with a national representative sample. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 104, Article 103699. ISSN 0891-4222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103699