Dr. Ciara Mahon (BA Hons, Sch., PhD) is an Assistant Professor at the DCU School of Psychology. Ciara received her Honours BA in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin and was awarded the prestigious Trinity College Foundation Scholarship.
She completed her PhD at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), which explored the impact of social media on adolescent body image and how self-compassion could reduce adolescent body image concerns related to social media use. She has subsequently co-led several multistakeholder, international projects involving the design and evaluation of school-based body image interventions. She was Principal Investigator on an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Enterprise Scheme at University College Dublin and worked with Jigsaw, The National Centre for Youth Mental Health to culturally adapt and evaluate, “Be Real’s BodyKind” - a novel body image programme for adolescents, in one of the largest school-based body image trials, involving 23 schools and approximately 1,200 students.
Ciara also has interests in youth mental health, from her first postdoctoral position at UCD, in partnership with Jigsaw, which involved analysing and communicating findings of My World Surveys, national mental health surveys of 33,000+ people in Ireland.
Ciara teaches a number of modules including Introduction to Psychology and Developmental Psychology for the BSc in Nursing and the MSc in Psychology at DCU. Ciara is on the editorial board for the Body Image Journal and is co-founder of the Body Image Research Network Ireland (BIRN), an interdisciplinary network to facilitate research in body image and body image-related disorders.
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Mahon, C.; Dooley, B.; O’Reilly, A.; Fitzgerald, A. (2024) 'Socioecological Risk and Protective Factors for Sexual Victimization in Post-Secondary Students in Ireland: A Brief Report'. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2024 | Mahon, C.; Hamburger, D.; Yager, Z.; O'Dowd, O.; Webb, J.B.; Fitzgerald, A. (2024) 'Making it relevant: A codesign and cultural acceptability study of Be Real's BodyKind Ireland body image programme for older adolescents'. Body Image, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2023 | Orpha de Lenne; Ciara Mahon; Steven Eggermont; Tim Smits; David Hevey; Laura Vandenbosch (2023) 'Intercultural insights on the impact of different non-idealized models on men’s body image and advertising perceptions'. Journal of Health Psychology, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2023 | Mahon, C.; Hamburger, D.; Yager, Z.; Almaraz, M.; Mooney, J.; Tran, T.; O'Dowd, O.; Bauert, L.; Smith, K.G.; Gomez-Trejo, V.; Webb, J.B. (2023) 'Pilot feasibility and acceptability trial of BE REAL's BodyKind: A universal school-based body image intervention for adolescents'. Body Image, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2023 | Mahon, C.; Hamburger, D.; Webb, J.B.; Yager, Z.; Howard, E.; Booth, A.; Fitzgerald, A. (2023) 'Protocol of a cluster randomised trial of BodyKind: a school-based body image programme for adolescents'. BMC Public Health, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2023 | Ciara Mahon; Amanda Fitzgerald; Aileen O'Reilly; Barbara Dooley (2023) 'Mental, physical and sexual health in sexual minority third‐level students: Findings from My World Survey 2'. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | (2022) 'Profiling third-level student mental health: findings from My World Survey 2'. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | (2022) 'Systematic Review of Digital Interventions for Adolescent and Young Adult Women's Body Image'. Frontiers in Global Women's Health, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | (2022) 'Pilot trial of a self-compassion intervention to address adolescents’ social media-related body image concerns'. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | Ciara Mahon; Emma Howard; Aileen O'Reilly; Barbara Dooley; Amanda Fitzgerald (2022) 'A cluster analysis of health behaviours and their relationship to mental health difficulties, life satisfaction and functioning in adolescents'. Preventive Medicine, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2022 | Ciara Mahon; Amanda Fitzgerald; Aileen O'Reilly; Courtney McDermott; Cliodhna O'Brien; Barbara Dooley (2022) 'An exploratory investigation of body esteem, body dissatisfaction and body change behaviours in sexual minority young adults from a risk and protective perspective'. Psychology and Sexuality, . [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2021 | (2021) 'Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping'. Frontiers in Psychology, . [Link] [DOI] |
Research Interests
Ciara’s research interests include body image, self-compassion, intervention design and evaluation, eating disorder prevention, social media and youth mental health. Ciara is interested in understanding the factors that support positive body image, and how these can be harnessed in innovative ways to improve body image and psychological wellbeing across the lifespan.