Rate My Professor Jessica Kerr

Dr. Jessica Kerr is a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Psychological Medicine within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. She holds joint appointments at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia. Kerr possesses a PhD and has training in health psychology and epidemiology. Her career includes serving as a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute from January 2014 to February 2016 and as a Research Assistant at the University of Canterbury's Department of Psychology from January 2007 to November 2013. After several years working in Australia, she returned to New Zealand to take up her current position, which began in September 2021.

Kerr's research investigates early-life determinants of poor cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes, with expertise in adolescent and adult nutrition, obesity, cardiovascular health, and mental health, including special interests in personality. She currently leads projects on optimal environments for health, emphasizing neighbourhood characteristics, and is building the TIME Consortium to harmonize international cohort studies for analyzing risk factors for premature mortality. Her interests extend to psychiatric epidemiology, long-term outcomes linked to child and adolescent mental and physical health, intervention targets for reducing premature mortality, and non-communicable disease epidemiology in global health. As part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, she contributes to population health research. Notable publications include 'The natural history of DSM-5 alcohol-use disorder from late adolescence to middle adulthood in Australia: A prospective cohort study' (The Lancet Public Health, 2025), 'Childhood sexual abuse and maternal social and financial resources, mental health, and parenting outcomes in pregnancy and early parenthood: A multicohort observational study' (The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women's Health, 2026), 'Parental care in adolescence and women's later postpartum psychosocial wellbeing: A 20-year prospective preconception cohort study' (Archives of Women's Mental Health, 2026), 'Long-term outcomes associated with adolescent ADHD symptomatology: Birth cohort study' (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2025), and 'Mid-life social and health outcomes associated with early onset chronic non-cancer pain: Findings from the Victorian Adolescent Health Cohort Study' (Clinical Journal of Pain, 2025). Her scholarship has accumulated over 6,700 citations per Scopus records.