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Professor Chris Bonell

Professor of Public Health and Sociology

United Kingdom

I am Professor of Public Health & Sociology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine having previously held professorial appointments at University College London and the University of Oxford. In the Covid-19 pandemic, I advised the UK government and WHO in relation to schools and young people, and in communications strategies. I sit on the Department for Education Science Advisory Council. I am the author of the following books:

 

Toxic Education: How Schools are Damaging Young People's Health and Wellbeing and How We Can Fix Them. Policy Press. https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/toxic-education 

 

Realist Trials and Systematic Reviews: Rigorous, Useful Evidence for Health Policy. Cambridge University Press (with G.J. Melendez-Torres and Emily Warren). https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/realist-trials-and-systematic-revi…;

 

 

Affiliations

Department of Public Health, Environments and Society
Faculty of Public Health and Policy

Centres

Centre for Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health

Research

I specialise in how school environments influence adolescent health and how interventions might modify this. I am particularly interested in sexual health, violence and mental health. I was co-PI for the INCLUSIVE trial which reported the effectiveness of a whole-school intervention across multiple health and educational outcomes including bullying. I have developed realist trials and systematic reviews as a means of rigorously evaluating how and for whom interventions work. 

 

I am interested in taking on doctoral students in the above areas.

Selected Publications

Determining the optimal strategy for reopening schools, the impact of test and trace interventions, and the risk of occurrence of a second COVID-19 epidemic wave in the UK: a modelling study.
Panovska-Griffiths, J; Kerr, CC; Stuart, RM; Mistry, D; Klein, DJ; Viner, RM; BONELL, C;
2020
The Lancet Child & adolescent health
Harnessing behavioural science in public health campaigns to maintain 'social distancing' in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: key principles.
BONELL, C; Michie, S; Reicher, S; West, R; Bear, L; Yardley, L; CURTIS, V; Amlôt, R; Rubin, GJ;
2020
Journal of epidemiology and community health
The sustainability of public health interventions in schools: a systematic review.
HERLITZ, L; MacIntyre, H; Osborn, T; BONELL, C;
2020
Implementation science
Role theory of schools and adolescent health.
BONELL, C; Blakemore, S-J; Fletcher, A; Patton, G;
2019
The Lancet. Child & adolescent health
Examining intervention mechanisms of action using mediation analysis within a randomised trial of a whole-school health intervention.
BONELL, C; ALLEN, E; OPONDO, C; WARREN, E; ELBOURNE, DR; STURGESS, J; Bevilacqua, L; McGowan, J; Mathiot, A; Viner, RM;
2019
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health
Effects of the Learning Together intervention on bullying and aggression in English secondary schools (INCLUSIVE): a cluster randomised controlled trial.
BONELL, C; ALLEN, E; WARREN, E; McGowan, J; Bevilacqua, L; Jamal, F; LEGOOD, R; Wiggins, M; OPONDO, C; Mathiot, A; STURGESS, J; Fletcher, A; SADIQUE, Z; ELBOURNE, D; Christie, D; Bond, L; Scott, S; Viner, RM;
2018
The Lancet
Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing.
Patton, GC; Sawyer, SM; Santelli, JS; ROSS, DA; Afifi, R; Allen, NB; Arora, M; Azzopardi, P; Baldwin, W; BONELL, C; KAKUMA, R; Kennedy, E; Mahon, J; McGovern, T; Mokdad, AH; PATEL, V; Petroni, S; Reavley, N; Taiwo, K; Waldfogel, J; Wickremarathne, D; Barroso, C; Bhutta, Z; Fatusi, AO; Mattoo, A; ... Viner, RM.
2016
Lancet
The three stages of building and testing mid-level theories in a realist RCT: a theoretical and methodological case-example.
Jamal, F; Fletcher, A; Shackleton, N; ELBOURNE, D; Viner, R; BONELL, C;
2015
Trials
'Dark logic': theorising the harmful consequences of public health interventions.
BONELL, C; Jamal, F; Melendez-Torres, GJ; CUMMINS, S;
2014
Journal of epidemiology and community health
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