Rate My Professor Marina Mendonca

Dr. Marina Mendonça is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick, where she is a member of the Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Group. She obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at the University of Porto, Portugal, serving as a PhD fellow from 2009 to 2012 while working as a Research Assistant at the University of Porto Centre of Psychology from 2001 to 2012. Following this, she held a Research Associate position at Keele University's Research Institute for Social Sciences from March 2013 to October 2016. She joined the University of Warwick as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Psychology from March 2017 to September 2021 before advancing to her current Assistant Professor role. Her research expertise lies in lifespan development, resilience, and well-being, with a particular focus on the long-term consequences of preterm birth and the impact of life-course transitions on development and well-being in young and late adulthood. She also investigates parent-young adult relationships and individual differences in young people’s transitions to adulthood. Mendonça contributes to international consortia such as the RECAP project on European children and adults born preterm and the IMPROVE Preterm consortium, advancing observational studies to improve lifelong health outcomes for preterm-born individuals. She supervises PhD students, including a fellowship exploring psychosocial, health, and contextual factors influencing the menopause transition and women’s wellbeing.

Mendonça has authored numerous high-impact publications, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses on preterm birth outcomes. Key works include Mendonça, M., Bilgin, A., & Wolke, D. (2019). 'Association of Preterm Birth and Low Birth Weight with Romantic Partnership, Sexual Intercourse, and Parenthood in Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis' in JAMA Network Open; Ni, Y., Mendonça, M., et al. (2021). 'Social Functioning in Adults Born Very Preterm: Individual Participant Meta-analysis' in Pediatrics; Eves, R., Mendonça, M., et al. (2021). 'Intelligence of very preterm/very low birthweight individuals in adulthood and its antecedents: an IPD meta-analysis' in JAMA Pediatrics; Liu, Y., Mendonça, M., et al. (2021). 'Very Preterm Birth and Trajectories of Domain-Specific Self-Concept from Childhood into Adulthood' in Development and Psychopathology; and Mendonça, M., et al. (2024). 'Romantic and sexual relationships of young adults born very preterm: An individual participant data meta-analysis' in Acta Paediatrica. These contributions have illuminated social, romantic, cognitive, and personality trajectories for individuals born preterm, informing socioeconomic and health outcome predictions. She delivers teaching across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, integrating her research expertise into the curriculum.