Rate My Professor Fiona MacCallum

Professor Fiona MacCallum is a Professor of Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick. She holds the qualifications of BSc, MSc, and PhD. Her research focuses on children's social and emotional development, parent-child relationships and their influence on psychological development. She compares parenting and child development in diverse family forms, such as adoptive families, families created through assisted reproduction including embryo donation, and father-absent families. Additional interests include the development of body image and factors affecting it; she is a partner on the AHRC project on “The changing requirements of beauty”. Professor MacCallum investigates direct-to-consumer genetic testing and the changing landscape of family relationships as part of the Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Group. She contributes to clinical and developmental psychology through teaching modules like PS911-15 Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology and PS348-15 Issues in Families and Development.

Professor Fiona MacCallum has produced a substantial body of research published in leading journals. Key publications include: “Parenting and child development in families with a child conceived through embryo donation” (Journal of Family Psychology, 2007); “Embryo donation families: A follow-up in middle childhood” (Journal of Family Psychology, 2008); “Embryo donation parents' attitudes towards donors: a longitudinal study” (Human Reproduction, 2009); “Disclosure patterns of embryo donation mothers compared with those of anonymous and identity-release oocyte donors” (Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 2012); “Understanding the Influence of Unrealistic Images and Beauty Ideals on Cosmetic Surgery Consideration” (Hecate, 2018); “When carers end foster placements: The contribution of carer characteristics and placement history” (Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 2020); “Parenting of Adolescent Single Children: A Mixed-methods Study” (Journal of Family Issues, 2021); and “Direct-to-consumer genetic testing and the changing landscape of family relationships” (Reproductive BioMedicine Online, 2024). She has collaborated on projects exploring kinship engagements at the donor conception-adoption interface and participates in workshops on knowledge in selfie culture.