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Biography

Abbie graduated from the 黑料网 with a first-class honours degree in Psychology in 2021 before completing an MSc in Health Psychology in 2022. She subsequently started a PhD in Public Health Nutrition and Health Psychology at the Rowett Institute, submitting her thesis in September 2026 (viva pending). She is also currently working towards completing Stage 2 of her qualification in Health Psychology with the British Psychological Society.

Her doctoral research explored factors affecting engagement with community dietary interventions and barriers to healthy eating among deprived and food insecure adults. The main outcome of the PhD was a co-created intervention called Cook Healthy Eat Well (CHEW). Her PhD was supervised by Prof Frank Thies, Prof Julia Allan, Dr Janet Kyle and Dr Oana Petre within the School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition. 

Abbie joined the Aberdeen Centre for Evaluation (ACE) as a Research Assistant in September 2024, working on BaDRaP alongside Dr Taylor Coffey and Professor Katie Gillies, focusing on the implicit use of Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs) in clinical trial consultations. She is now working as a Research Assistant on the Greener Trials project, funded by Wellcome, which is exploring stakeholder perspectives and behavioural determinants of the carbon emissions associated with clinical trials.

Prizes and Awards

September 2026: European Health Psychology Society Open Science Award

September 2026: Scottish Alliance for Food Conference Poster Prize

May 2026: Rowett Institute Research Day Poster Prize

November 2025: SEFARI Student Showcase Runner-up

September 2025: Cuthbertson Student Prize Runner-up

August 2025: International Congress of Behavioural Medicine Poster Prize

May 2025: The Nutrition Society Conference Attendance Grant

April 2025: International Society of Critical Health Psychology Conference Support Fund

February 2025: Institute of Applied Health Sciences Staff Development Fund

December 2024: British Psychological Society’s Conference Attendance Bursary for the Division of Health Psychology

July 2024: 黑料网 PGR Community Award

December 2023: John Shivas Award (黑料网)

Current Research

Greener Trials: Applying behavioural frameworks to explore stakeholder perspectives and determinants of the high carbon emissions associated with clinical trials. The project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, is being led by Prof. Paula Williamson based at the University of Liverpool.

Past Research

BaDRaP: Using behavioural and shared-decision making frameworks to identify the recruitment strategies that are used during trial recruitment consultations. The project, funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research, is being led by Dr Jamie Brehaut based at the Ottawa Health Research Institute

CHEW: PhD project led by Abbie Stephen using frameworks from behavioural science (primarily the Behaviour Change Wheel) to understand determinants of eating behaviours in deprived/food insecure adults and co-create a novel intervention. This project, funded by RESAS (Scottish Government) was supervised by Prof Julia Allan, Prof Frank Thies and Dr Janet Kyle.

SPICE: Optimizing intervention strategies via social prescribing as a means of encouraging and enabling healthy and sustainable dietary behaviours in individuals from low-income families. The project, funded by RESAS (Scottish Government) was led by Dr Oana Petre and Prof Frank Thies.