Christine Stephens

Christine Vivienne Stephens is a New Zealand psychology academic. She is currently professor of psychology at Massey University based in the Palmerston North. She is one of he founding members of the International Society of Critical Health Society, which she has also chaired. she is currently the society's treasurer. 
Career.
Stephens completed her PhD at Massey on Occupational overuse in 1993 before joining the staff in 1996 and rising to professor. Upon appointment she developed a course in health promotion, which was offered from 2001 and which she taught until 2016. During this time she authored a book on health promotion, entitled "Health Promotion: A Psychosocial Approach" and published in 2008. Stephens co-leads the cross-disciplinary Health and Ageing Research Team (HART) with Fiona Alpass, also at Massey. The team's major focus is a longitudinal study of quality of life in ageing (Health, Work and Retirement study), the New Zealand Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The research team has conducted bi-annual surveys of a population sample of older people for over 10 years. The research also includes in-depth qualitative studies on topics such as informal care-giving, palliative care, experiences of terminal illness, and housing needs.
Scholarship.
Stephen's current research is located at the intersection of health psychology and gerontology. Her scholarly work is presently focused on the requirements of the ageing population and the need to provide information for supportive social policy and practice. She has made a significant theoretical contribution to this area, along with colleague Mary Breheny, an associate professor at Massey University and member to the Health and Ageing Research Team. Together they have drawn on Sen's well-known Capability Approach to develop a nuanced theoretical framework that transcends a purely biomedical view by recognizing ideas of resilience, as well as the experiences of older people themselves in determining what it means to age well. 