Personal profile
Research interests
Dr Beki Langford is a Senior Lecturer in Public Mental Health at the University of Bristol, specialising in children and young people’s mental health. With a background in anthropology and expertise in applied qualitative methods, she conducts research into the development and evaluation of public health interventions.
Beki has a particular interest in weight stigma and weight‑related bullying, and how these experiences influence wellbeing, education and young people’s life chances. She also works on a wide range of projects examining the wider determinants of mental health and wellbeing. This includes research in Early Years settings (the EARLY study), parenting programmes (the COSIE study), the mental health impact of receiving debt advice through food banks, and the needs of children and young people who are not currently attending school.
She is also a member of the Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Team (PHIRST), which provides timely and accessible evaluations of local authority public health interventions.
Beki teaches on Bristol Medical School’s Master’s in Public Health, the undergraduate medical programme, and contributes to the School’s short courses on Co‑design, Co‑production and Participatory Action Research, as well as Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods.
Keywords
- Children
- Young people
- Public Health
- Health Inequities
- Evaluation
- Qualitative Research
- Intervention design
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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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An environmental physical activity and nutrition intervention in Early Childhood Education and Care settings: process evaluation of the NAP SACC UK multi-centre cluster RCT
Cooper, J., Hannam , K., Chambers, S., Reid, T., Jago, R., Toumpakari, Z., Simpson, S. A., Pallan, M., Cochrane, M., Kipping, R. R. & Langford, R. M., 29 Jan 2026, (Accepted/In press) In: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
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An environmental physical activity and nutrition intervention in early childhood education and care settings: process evaluation of the NAPSACC UK multi-centre cluster RCT
Cooper, J., Hannam, K., Chambers, S., Reid, T., Jago, R., Toumpakari, Z., Simpson, S. A., Pallan, M., Cochrane, M., Kipping, R. & Langford, R., 13 Feb 2026, In: International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 23, 1, 15 p., 26.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access -
How public health practitioners in the UK are using parental guidance on talking to children about weight: A qualitative study
Brockman, R., Gillison, F., Grey, E., Jago, R., MacArthur, G. J., Gutteridge, C. & Langford, R. M., 25 Feb 2026, In: BMJ Open. 16, 2, 9 p., e105371.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review
Open Access
Projects
- 1 Active
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Communication and Skills Intervention with Fathers (COSIE): A feasibility study
Symonds, J. (Principal Investigator), Langford, R. M. (Co-Investigator), de Vocht , F. (Co-Investigator), Roy, J. (Co-Investigator), Thorn, J. C. (Co-Investigator), Cartwright, M. A. (Co-Investigator) & Gould, G. (Manager)
1/01/26 → 31/12/27
Project: Research, Parent
Datasets
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Data from Back to School (11-2020)
Kesten, J. M. (Creator), Horwood, J. (Creator), Kidger, J. (Creator), Lorenc, A. (Creator) & Langford, B. (Creator), University of Bristol, 5 Nov 2020
DOI: 10.5523/bris.v5fc53z84q2q2wqd2omc8mdml, http://data.bris.ac.uk/data/dataset/v5fc53z84q2q2wqd2omc8mdml
Dataset
Prizes
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Weight-related bullying in schools: getting research findings into policy and practice
Langford, R. M. (Recipient), Grey, L. (Recipient) & Hughes, A. M. M. (Recipient), 12 Mar 2025
Prize: Prizes, Medals, Awards and Grants