Dr Rachel Nesbit (She/Her)

Rachel Nesbit is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology. Her research focuses on children’s play (specifically outdoor free-play and adventurous play) as a vital component of supporting health and well-being, preventing poor mental health, promoting physical activity, and reducing inequalities in health outcomes. She is particularly interested in ensuring that all children have equitable access to quality play opportunities.

Her key areas of interest include:

1. Understanding the relationship between play and children’s health, particularly mental health.
2. Exploring the complex socio-ecological factors that impact children’s play opportunities (especially within school settings).
3. Informing interventions that support access to and opportunities for play.
4. Advocating for high-quality playtimes in schools and equitable access for all children.

Rachel is passionate about conducting research that makes a meaningful impact on the lives of children. She has shared her expertise on national radio, podcasts, and in national newspapers. She has also contributed evidence to the UK Parliament on issues related to children’s play, and her work was recently cited in the UK POST report on Children’s Wellbeing in Schools.

Rachel uses a range of methodologies in her research, including large-scale surveys, qualitative interviews, and observational studies. Rachel leads the third-year seminar the Psychology of Play (PSY3457).

Prior to joining the Department of Psychology, Rachel was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Research Collaboration (ChYMe) in the Medical School @ Exeter.  Rachel was employed as part of a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (PI: Helen Dodd) examining adventurous play as a mechanism for reducing the risk of childhood anxiety. Rachel completed her PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London, her thesis examined the role of social anxiety, depression and lateralisation for emotion processing in adolescent facial emotion recognition. She has previously worked on a range of research projects in the areas of social cognition, statistics anxiety, language development and mental health.