Åsa Norman

Kort presentation

PhD and Associate Professor with a background in behavioural science and anthropology specialising in prevention of child ill-health through interventions targeting chidlren and families in vulnerable positions.

Biografi

2025 - Uppsala University, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Global Health and Migration Unit, Senior Lecturer

2022-2025 Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychology, Senior Reseeach Specilist 100% position Principal investigator and project manager for research projects, teaching.

2020- 2022 Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Division of Psychology Research Coordinator. 50% position Principal investigator and project manager for research projects, teaching.

2020-2022 Stockholm University, Department of Psychology, Senior lecturer 50%. Course leader and lecturer at the at the Psychology programme and freestanding courses in Psychology.

2017-2020 Karolinska Institutet, Department of Global Public Health and Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Postdoc 50-80%. PI for the controlled trial on the parenting intervention in prison, funded by grants awarded in competion as principal applicant and project manager for the cluster-randomised controlled trial A Healthy School Start Plus, a parental support intervention to promote children’s healthy behaviors in disadvantaged areas.

2016 December - Doctoral degree, PhD, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet  ”Parental support to promote children's dietary and physical activity behaviors in disadvantaged settings”.

Forskning

My research has an overall focus on preventing ill-health among individuals in disadvantaged situations, through developing, assessing and implementing interventions targeting both physical and psychological outcomes. The teams and projects I lead have a specific interest in preventive work that target children. I currently lead projects to promote positive family factors among families affected by incarceration with a specific focus on promoting healthy development for children with an incarcerated parent. Within this research focus I am the project leader and PI for:

• the development and evaluation of an intervention to promote psychosocial health for children with incarcerated parents and their non-incarcerated caregiver (funded by Forte) Read more here.
• systematic reviews to explore internationally evaluated interventions for children of incarcerated parents and their non-incarcerated caregivers on psychosocial outcomes. The systematic reviews, (funded by the Strategic Research Area Health Care Science (SFO-V), Karolinska Institutet/Umeå University) and are registered in PROSPOERO (child and caregiver)
• the evaluation of a parental support intervention conducted in prisons in Sweden with the aim to prevent children's poor psychosocial health and future criminality and marginalisation through increased positive parenting
• Read more about the above projects here
• I am also the PI for an evaluation of a support strucutre for chidlren as young a´carers (ages 3-6 years) “BRA-samtal”, funded by Allmänna Barnhuset. 

I collaborate on reserach projects that focus on:

• adapting and implementing a person-centred integrated care model to frail older adults through a randomized controlled trial, Karolinska Institutet (PI Ann Liljas)
• evaluting the effects and feasibility of treatment for sexual offending (STOPPA) at Karolinska Institutet (PI Niklas Långström)
• investigating how social emotional competencies and well-being change across development (PATHS) at Stockholm University (PI Laura Ferrer Wreder)
• implmenting and promoting of physical activity in secondary school contexts at The Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, GIH (PI Håkan Larsson)
• supporting physical activity in prediabetes and type 2 diabetes (Sophia Step Study) at Sophiahemmet University (PI Maria Hagströmmer, Unn-Britt Johansson)
• Implementing the parental support intervention "A Healty School Start" in the project “IMplementation and evaluation of the school-based family support PRogram a Healthy School Start to promote child health and prevent OVErweight and obesity (IMPROVE)” at Karolinska Institutet (PI Liselotte Schäfer Elinder)

Previous projects include three waves of evaluation of a school-based parental support intervention aimed to promote children’s healthy dietary and physical activity behaviours and to prevent child obesity in disadvantaged areas, the Healthy School Start intervention. The implementation of the Healthy School Start Intervention is currently being evaluated in an implementation trial: “IMplementation and evaluation of the school-based family support PRogram a Healthy School Start to promote child health and prevent OVErweight and obesity (IMPROVE)”. These trials intervention is carried out by the research group Community Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Department of Global Public Health. I mainly work with disadvantaged families and use both quantitative and qualitative methods

My research interests also involve behaviour change, motivational interviewing, and development of theory related to prevention and cultural adaptation of evidenced-based practices. I am also interested in methodological advancements and I am currently devoted to applying and developeing advanced mixed methods appraches in internvetion and implementation reserach.

Media

ORCiD profile

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0313-3066

Linkedin profile

https://se.linkedin.com/in/asanorman1

Podcast Barnspsykologerna

https://poddtoppen.se/podcast/1373262000/barnpsykologerna/249-forskarna-asa-norman-och-vera-wachtmeister-om-barn-som-har-en-foralder-i-fangelse