How much and how well do adolescents with special educational needs move and what is the effect of this on their physical and mental health?
This project explores how much physical activity adolescents with special educational needs engage in, and their levels of motor competence. This research also explores other outcomes, including perceptions of physical competency and wellbeing and will lead to a school-based pilot intervention programme.
Exploring socioecological factors shaping physical activity in neurodivergent young people: What are the key influences for lasting impact?
This project will explore the factors that influence physical activity in neurodivergent young people, with a particular focus on school environments.
Using a socioecological approach, it will investigate social, environmental, and policy factors, alongside individual influences such as physical literacy, comprising physical (fitness), social (teamwork), cognitive (knowledge and understanding), and affective (motivation and confidence) elements.
It will also validate tailored assessment tools for use in this population and use wearable devices to measure physical activity patterns in detail.
From exploration to implementation: Co-producing inclusive co-participation in community sport for disabled children and young people
This project will explore inclusive co-participation in community sport, supporting disabled and non-disabled children and young people to take part together through adapted, inclusive approaches to delivery.
Working collaboratively with disabled children, families, coaches, and sporting organisations, the project will co-produce a practical framework for inclusive delivery, and support its early implementation, including training, across the city region to promote sustainable and accessible participation.
An exploration of the phenomenology of helping others. What is it that moves us to help? Explored through fire fighters and volunteers.
Study 1: A Qualitative Investigation of Volunteer Motivations in Career Firefighters (semi structured interviews x18 firefighters from three groups (volunteers, non-volunteers and drop-outs)).
Study 2: Phenomenology of Helping Others. What is it that Moves us to Help? (x4 participants, x2 interviews, picture diaries practitioner/researcher reflections)
Enhancing the dissemination, implementation, and sustainability of physical literacy into policy and practice
This programme of research is examining the dissemination, implementation and sustainment of physical literacy in policy and practice.
The studies include a scoping review exploring consensus and position statements in the sport and exercise sciences, and qualitative work to understand if and how physical literacy consensus statements have been mobilised and implemented in different countries.
In collaboration with the Hewitt Fertility Centre, Liverpool Women's Hospital and the University of Liverpool, Rity is investigating habitual physical activity and exercise history in women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.
This research aims to improve understanding of the role that physical activity may play in fertility treatment and reproductive health outcomes.
Kirsty is exploring the impact of a mobile health (mHealth) technology supported intervention designed to increase physical activity levels in people living with rheumatoid arthritis.
Her research examines the effects of increased physical activity on quality of life and disease activity. Kirsty is also conducting a scoping review investigating the relationship between physical activity and workplace outcomes among people living with gout.
