Marilyn Ahun

Dr. Ahun’s research focuses on:
-Examining the underlying processes through which parental mental health, particularly maternal depression, influences child development, and
-Developing new interventions to promote early child development and overall family wellbeing in low- and middle-income countries by supporting maternal and paternal mental health and caregiving practices.

She primarily uses longitudinal data from population-based cohorts in Canada and South Africa to examine how parental depression impacts child and adolescent outcomes. She also has experience conducting qualitative research with mothers and fathers in rural areas of Mozambique and Tanzania to examine their daily experiences of caring for young children. For her Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Ahun will collaborate with colleagues from Pakistan, Canada, Australia, and the US to use evidence from these and other studies to inform the development of a parenting and mental health intervention for mothers and fathers in Pakistan. This work will also be informed by reviews she is conducting on effective implementation strategies in parenting and mental health interventions to promote early child development and caregiver outcomes.

Dr. Ahun’s work on parenting behaviours, maternal depression, and child development has been published in scientific articles and international reports including Annals of the New York Academy of Science, JAMA Network Open, Psychological Medicine, and UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2021 report.