Fiona Alderdice
Senior Social Scientist and Co-Director NIHR Policy Research Unit Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care
Dr Sinziana-Ioana Oncioiu
PRU Health Services Researcher/Epidemiologist sinziana-ioana.oncioiu@npeu.ox.ac.uk
Biography
Sînziana is a pharmacist turned mental health epidemiologist based in the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU), where she joined the Policy Research Unit in Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care in February 2026. She is particularly interested in understanding the interplay between mental and reproductive health across the life course. She brings experience in child and adolescent mental health research, working with birth cohort and longitudinal twin data, and applies methods from developmental psychopathology, life course epidemiology and causal inference.
Prior to joining the NPEU, Sînziana held an Understanding Society Research Fellowship (2025–2026) in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, examining the influence of fertility histories on chronic stress across the life course. Before this, she was a UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow (2022–2025) in the same department, mentored by Professors Lucy Bowes and Kate Nation, and working in the Oxford Risk and Resilience, Genes and Environment (oRANGE) research team. Her project focused on understanding the links between developmental language disorders, bullying and mental health among children and young people.
Sînziana holds a Master's degree in Public Health Epidemiology from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden, and a PhD in the same field from the University of Bordeaux, France. She enjoys spending time in nature, dancing, drawing, and connecting with people.
Publications
Peer-reviewed journal articles
- Wong JHL, Oncioiu SI, Girard LC, Tremblay RE, Boivin M et al. (2025). Associations between childhood language development and youth suicide attempt: a 20-year longitudinal study. Journal of Affective Disorders, doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2025.119930.
- Oncioiu SI, Korde A, Klatzka CH, Bowes L (2025). Does negative parenting behaviour lead to later peer victimisation? A longitudinal co-twin control study. International Journal of Behavioral Development. Special section on predictors and outcomes of peer victimization. doi: 10.1177/01650254251324163
- Oncioiu SI, Nation K, Lim KI, Pingault JB, Bowes L (2024). Concurrent and longitudinal associations of Developmental Language Disorder with peer victimization in adolescence– evidence from a co-twin study. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13969.
- Guzman Holst, C., Oncioiu, SI, Creswell, C., & Bowes, L. (2023). What Happens to Children's Mental Health and Peer Relationships During Periods of Restricted and Unrestricted Social Interactions? Results From the Co-SPACE Study in Primary School-Aged Children. JAACAP Open, doi: 10.1016/j.jaacop.2023.05.003.
- Oncioiu SI, Boivin M, Geoffroy MC, Arseneault L, Galéra C. et al (2021). Mental health comorbidities following peer victimization across childhood and adolescence: a 20-year longitudinal study. Psychological Medicine. doi: 10.1017/S0033291721003822.
- Oncioiu SI, Orri M, Boivin M, Geoffroy MC, Arseneault L et al. (2020). Early childhood factors associated with peer victimization trajectories from 6 to 17 years of age. Pediatrics. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-2654.
- Navarro MC, Orri M, Nagin D, Tremblay RE, Oncioiu SI et al. (2020). Adolescent internalizing symptoms: The importance of multi-informant assessments in childhood. J Affect Disord. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.01.106.
- Oncioiu SI, Franchetti-Pardo L., Virtanen SE, Faggiano, F, & Galanti, MR (2017). Beyond intention-to-treat: The effect of brief counseling for tobacco cessation in secondary analyses of a cluster randomized controlled trial in Swedish dental clinics. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2017.01.005.
Practitioner and policy reports
- Oncioiu SI, Harrison S, Tunn R, Coombes L, Alderdice F. Descriptive analysis of the use of the terms risk, safety and physiological birth in UK midwifery undergraduate degree course module descriptions using generative AI models: response to a request from the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation. NIHR Policy Research Unit in Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford. April 2026.
- Oncioiu SI (2022). Bullying Topic Guide. Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH). doi: 10.13056/acamh.20512.
- Oncioiu SI, Burkhart G, Calafat A, Duch M, Perman-Howe P et al. (2018). Environmental substance use prevention interventions in Europe. European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) Lisbon. URL: https://europa.eu/!tm76wY
