Fionnuala Larkin

Fionnuala Larkin is a Senior Lecturer at University College Cork (UCC) and holds an honorary Adjunct Lecturer position at University College Dublin (UCD). She trained as a Clinical Psychologist at UCD, focusing on parent-child interaction in autism spectrum disorders. Her career includes roles as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of York, Associate Lecturer at York St John University, and Senior Clinical Psychologist at the University of Limerick. She has maintained clinical practice alongside academia, working with NHS North Yorkshire Autism and ADHD services and providing clinical supervision.

Her research interests center on developmental psychology, psychopathology, and bidirectional influences in parent-child relationships. Key areas include mind-mindedness, infant/maternal mental health, autism, ADHD, and participatory research approaches with autistic mothers. She has secured grants from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust.

Larkin’s work emphasizes translational research, such as developing smartphone apps to enhance parental mind-mindedness and validating cross-cultural assessment tools. Collaborators include Dr. Sarah Fishburn (Teeside University), Dr. Jessica Hobson (Sonoma State University), and Prof. Elizabeth Meins (University of York).