Dr Kirsty Garbett

• Qualifications:DPhil, MSc, BSc (Hons)
• Position:Senior Research Fellow - Centre for Appearance Research
• Department:HAS - Allied Health Professions
• Telephone:+441173282911
• Email:Kirsty.Garbett@uwe.ac.uk

About me

Kirsty Garbett is an applied body image researcher with extensive experience in the development and evaluation of interventions aimed to improve body confidence among children, adolescents, and adults.

Kirsty works as a Senior Research Fellow across on multiple projects under UWE Bristol's academic partnership with the Dove Self-Esteem Project. Over the past twelve years, she has led and supported on multiple randomised controlled trials evaluating the acceptability and effectiveness of online and school-based interventions to improve body confidence among children, adolescents, and adults in the UK, India, and Indonesia. To conduct this work, Kirsty works collaboratively with fellow academics from around the world, creative media experts, translators, and industry leaders.

Beyond this, Kirsty has a keen interest in the psychology of cosmetic procedures. She recently published a systematic review of the psychosocial outcomes following cosmetic surgery and identified a lack of robust research in this area. Beyond this, Kirsty has a keen interest in the validation of psychosocial measurement tools, understanding how social media can influence people to undertake appearance altering behaviours such as the use of weight-loss drugs non-medical purposes, or undergoing cosmetic procedures. She is particularly interested in how false or (mis)information may be broadcast on social media platforms, and who is most vulnerable to such messaging. 

Kirsty graduated with an MSc in Health Psychology from the University of Nottingham in 2013. Prior to this, Kirsty obtained a BA (Hons) degree in Psychology from the University of Strathclyde. In 2022, Kirsty completed her DPhil qualification in Health Psychology at UWE Bristol. Her thesis is titled, 'Scaling up evidence-based body-image interventions for adolescents: Studies from the UK, India, and Indonesia'. 

Area of expertise

body image; body image interventions; cultural adaptations of interventions; social media; measures validation; cosmetic surgery; cosmetic procedures.

Publications

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