The negative influence of parental depression of offspring development is well-established, however, many children adapt successfully. It is important to understand the processes that underlie both adverse and adaptive outcomes in offspring of those parents who experience depression. Dr Culpin is particularly interested in disentangling complex mechanisms that underpin intergenerational transmission of mental health risks in families, with specific focus on environmental and familial factors, such as family structure (e.g., father absence, parental divorce and separation), parenting, parent-child relationship, and parental confidence. Her Wellcome Trust funded programme of research examines the role that fathers play in shaping child development in the context of maternal postnatal depression using inter-disciplinary methodology, including epidemiological and advanced statistical analyses of complex longitudinal datasets, observational methods to assess emotional and behavioural quality of parent-child interactions, and in-depth qualitative interviews.

Dr Culpin completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of the West of England (Bristol, UK). She continued her postgraduate studies at the Department of Experimental Psychology (University of Bristol), completing her MSc in Neuropsychology. She obtained her PhD in Psychiatric Epidemiology at the School of Social and Community Medicine (University of Bristol). Prior to joining the Department of Child and Family Health in 2023, she worked as a research fellow (University of Bristol) and senior lecturer in Psychology (Manchester Metropolitan University).