Thomas O'Toole

I’m interested in how the workplace “gets under the skin” to influence changes in health across the lifecourse. In my doctoral thesis, I’m exploring the relationships between job quality and allostatic load, using structural equation modelling in data from the English Longitudinal Study of Aging and UK Household Longitudinal Study.

I graduated with a BSc in Psychology from the University of Huddersfield, winning the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship and a funded MSc by Research. My MSc research project was an exploration of compassion fatigue in student nurses, using interpretative phenomenological analysis and survey methods. I am currently a PhD candidate in the ESRC and BBSRC funded Soc-B Centre for Doctoral Training in Biosocial Research at the University of Manchester, which emphasises interdisciplinary research, with a shared cohort across University College London and The University of Essex.

Since starting my PhD, I have worked in teaching assistant roles across undergraduate and postgraduate courses, and I am also involved with a number of research projects alongside my thesis. I am currently an ECR executive committee member for the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS), and I am involved with a project aiming to chart recent developments in social-biological research. In addition, I am a part of the MRC funded Public Health Intervention Development Scheme, investigating work stress, burnout and turnover intention in delivery couriers in China.