Natalie has a Bachelor of Psychological Science with Honours. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR).


Natalie’s PhD project is part of a broader ARC-funded grant to understand changes in, and contemporary experiences of, heavy drinking for underage adolescents who continue to drink despite substantial declines in youth alcohol consumption since the early 2000’s. She will be conducting a range of studies using large cross-sectional and longitudinal population datasets to investigate how the patterns, contexts and profiles of young heavy drinkers have changed during the decline. She also seeks to understand the social and structural factors that underpin heavy drinking practices. Findings will supplement qualitative work that Klaudia Kepa is conducting for her PhD and will provide new insights into whether and how processes of ‘de-normalisation’ are shaping heavy drinking practices.