Kathryn

Higgins

Kathryn Higgins is a reader within the school of Social Science Education and Social Work Queen’s University Belfast. Kathryn has an established research reputation in the areas of substance use and addictive behaviour and programme evaluation/implementation science. She continues to lead the now 19-year longitudinal study, known as the Belfast Youth Development Study, The Belfast Youth Development Study (BYDS) was established to address the need for a longitudinal prospective cohort study to investigate the initiation, persistence and desistance of substance use behaviours (particularly problem drug use) from early adolescence to adulthood, with a view to informing interventions to prevent or reduce the harms associated with substance misuse. BYDS has acted as a focal point for collaborations with external partners and for new, policy led research in a range of settings including prisons. In a field that changes rapidly Kathryn has stayed at the forefront of emerging issues and was recently funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to undertake research in the developing field of new psychoactive substances (legal highs).