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Dr. Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie

Dr. Emmanuel Nii-Boye Quarshie
Senior Lecturer
enquarshie@ug.edu.gh

 

Nii is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana – where he is also the Secretary to the Departmental Research and Ethics Committee (DREC). He is a Community and Applied Health Psychologist by training, but he also has a strong inclination towards General Psychology. Nii’s research focuses on understanding and preventing adolescent self-harm, suicide, and child sexual abuse in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). He is passionate about developing community-based and in-school interventions to promote adolescent mental health in low- and middle-income countries, mainly, those within sub-Saharan Africa. He has keen interests in the application of multi-ecological frameworks and interdisciplinary models to understand adolescent self-harm and suicidal behaviours. Nii is not narrowly focused, as he understands how the phenomena he is exploring can be seen as part of the global epidemiology of self-harm, suicide and mental health – particularly, in young people. He has published over 45 peer-reviewed journal articles (see full list in ORCID) and acts as an Associate Editor for BMC Psychiatry and BMC Public Health, and an Academic Editor for PLOS ONE. Also, he is an ad hoc peer reviewer for over 40 key international journals in his area of research interests and expertise (e.g., The Lancet–eClinicalMedicine, Archives of Suicide Research, BMJ Open, Child Abuse & Neglect, Current Psychology, Death Studies, Journal of Affective Disorders, OMEGA–Journal of Death and Dying, and PLOS ONE). Nii remains a Leeds International Research Scholar (LIRS) and has, since 2020, been a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, University of Leeds, UK. He is an Associate Member of the Self-Harm Research Group (led by Professor Ellen Townsend) at the University of Nottingham, UK, and a Member of the International Network of Early Career Researchers in Suicide and Self-harm (netECR). Nii was awarded the prestigious 2021 De Leo Fund Award by the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) for outstanding research on suicidal behaviours carried out in developing countries.

 

Education and Training

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate (Psychological and Social Medicine) – University of Leeds, UK.
  • PhD (Psychological Sciences: Applied Health Psychology & Suicidology) – University of Leeds, UK.
  • MPhil (Human Development: Community & Cultural Psychology) – NTNU, Trondheim, Norway.
  • BA [Hons] (Psychology with Sociology) – University of Ghana, Ghana.

 

Research Areas.

Research Areas:

  • Adolescent and youth self-harm and suicide prevention in low- and middle-income contexts.
  • Child sexual abuse and violence prevention in resource-poor contexts.
  • Mental health of in-school youth, rural-dwelling youth, marginalised and minoritised hard-to-reach young people, and adolescents in fragile and (post)conflict contexts within sub-Saharan Africa.

Current Research:

  • Self-harm and suicidal behaviours in pregnant adolescent girls and young women in Ghana.
  • Mental health literacy among secondary school learners in Ghana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe (funder: National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, South Africa).
  • Ethical and methodological issues in researching self-harm among in-school and out-of-school adolescents in Ghana (funder: Leeds International Research Secretariat, UK).
  • Preventing university student suicide in Ghana (funder: BANGA–Africa).
  • Disability, chronicity, and adolescent self-harm and suicidal behaviours.

 

Teaching 

Courses teaching currently

  • PSYC 663 – Problems of Research and Methodology in Social Psychology
  • PSYC 632 – Cognitive Development
  • PSYC 631 – Theoretical Foundations of Child Development
  • PSYC 334 – Research Methods in Psychology
  • PSYC 221 – Introduction to General Psychology

Course taught previously

  • PSYC 448 – Community Psychology   
  • PSYC 336 – Developmental Psychology
  • PSYC 221 – Introduction to General Psychology
  • SAHS 112 – Introductory Psychology for Allied Health Sciences

 

Scientific Publications 

Recent Journal Articles

Quarshie, E. N. B., & Asante, K.O. (2022). Self-harm and suicidal behaviours among pregnant adolescent girls and young women could be doubly compounded in sub-Saharan Africa: a call for further research. The LANCET–eClinicalMedicine, 45:101339. DOI: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101339.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Atorkey, P., Garcia, K. P. V., Lomotey, S. A., & Navelle, P. L. (2022). Suicidal behaviors in a nationally representative sample of school-going adolescents aged 12–17 years in Eswatini. Trends in Psychology, 30, 3-32. DOI: 10.1007/s43076-021-00094-y.

Quarshie, E. N. B. & Andoh-Arthur, J. (2022). Suicide attempts among 1437 adolescents aged 12-17 years attending junior high schools in Ghana. Crisis 43(1), 8-17. DOI: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000746.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Shuweihdi, F., Waterman, M., & House, A. (2021). Self-harm among in-school and street-connected adolescents in Ghana: a cross-sectional survey in the Greater Accra Region. BMJ Open, 11: e041609. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-041609.

Oppong Asante, K., Quarshie, E. N. B., & Onyeaka, H. K. (2021). Epidemiology of suicidal behaviours amongst school-going adolescents in post-conflict Sierra Leone. Journal of Affective Disorders, 295, 989-996. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2021.08.147.

Quarshie, E. N. B. (2021). Boys should not be overlooked: sexual violence victimization and associated factors among school-going adolescents in urban Ghana. Child Abuse & Neglect, 120, 105227. DOI: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105227.

Quarshie, E. N. B. (2021). Self-harm among school-going adolescent survivors of sexual violence victimisation: a cross-sectional study. Frontiers Sociology–Public Mental Health, 6(605865). DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2021.605865.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Odame, S. K., & Annor, F. (2021). Suicidal behaviour in the Ghana Police Service: prevalence and correlates in the Greater Accra Region. Crisis, 42(3), 194-201. DOI: 10.1027/0227-5910/a000707.

Odame, S.K., Quarshie, E. N. B., Oti-Boadi, M. Andoh-Arthur, J. & Asante, K.O. (2021). Adolescent problem gambling in rural Ghana: prevalence and gender differentiation. Journal of Gambling Studies, 37, 83-105. DOI: 10.1007/s10899-020-09987-6.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Onyeaka, H.K. & Asante, K.O. (2020). Suicidal behaviours among adolescents in Liberia. BMC Psychiatry, 20(572). DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02985-3.

Tetteh, J., Ekem-Ferguson, G., Swaray, S. M., Kugbey, N., Quarshie, E. N. B, & Yawson, A. E. (2020). Marijuana use and repeated attempted suicide among senior high school students in Ghana: evidence from WHO Global School-Based Student Health Survey, 2012. General Psychiatry, 33(6), 1-10. DOI: 10.1136/gpsych-2020-100311.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Waterman, M. G., & House, A. O. (2020). Prevalence of self-harm among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adolescents: a comparison of personal and social adversity with a heterosexual sample in Ghana. BMC Research Notes 13(371). DOI: 10.1186/s13104-020-05111-4.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Waterman, M. G., & House, A. O. (2020). Self-harm with suicidal and non-suicidal intent in young people in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry 20(234), 1-26. DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02587-z.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Waterman, M. G., & House, A. O. (2020). Adolescent self-harm in Ghana: a qualitative interview-based study of first-hand accounts. BMC Psychiatry 20(275), 1-14. DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02599-9.

Quarshie, E. N. B., Waterman, M. G., & House, A. O. (2020). Adolescents at risk of self-harm in Ghana:  a qualitative interview study exploring the views and experience of key adult informants. BMC Psychiatry, 20(210). DOI: 10.1186/s12888-020-02718-6.

 

Recent Book Chapter

Andoh-Arthur, J. & Quarshie, E. N. B. (2021). Suicide attempt and ‘social suffering’: disrupting dangerous binary discourse and fostering kinship between the mental health and legal systems in Ghana. In H.C. O. Chan & Adjorlolo, S. (Eds). Mental Health & Criminal Justice System in Africa (1 ed., pp. 169-189). London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-71024-8_8.

Recent Conference Proceedings

Quarshie, E. N. B. (2022, May). Oral presentation: Suicide prevention in low- and middle-income countries: recent inroads and ways forward. 10th International Association for Suicide Prevention Asia Pacific Conference [May 2 – 5, 2022]. Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. URL: https://www.iasp.info/wp-content/uploads/Abstract-Book-APAC-mc.pdf

Quarshie, E. N. B., & Oppong Asante, K. (2021, September). Oral presentation: “One cannot commit a crime against himself”: the views of parliamentarians on the call to decriminalise attempted suicide in Ghana. 31st World Congress of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) [September 21 – 24, 2021]. Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia [virtual environment]. URL: https://www.iasp.info/goldcoast2021/31st-world-congress-abstract-book/.

Quarshie, E. N. B. (2021, April). Invited speaker: Adolescent suicide prevention in Ghana. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Grand Challenges Canada 11th Global Mental Health Research Without Borders Conference (April 5-7, 2021). Natcher Conference Center, National Institutes of Health Campus, Bethesda, USA [Zoom online environment]. URL: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/research/research-funded-by-nimh/inside-nimh/2021-spring-inside-nimh.