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 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 contributing to the design, implementation, and evaluation of parenting interventions in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania, as well as 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 is strengthening her skills in implementation research by leading work to identify effective implementation strategies in parenting and mental health interventions to promote early child development and caregiver outcomes. This work will inform future efforts to develop a parenting and mental health intervention for mothers and fathers to promote early child development in Ghana.

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.