Congratulation Dr Catherine Thamarai for the successful completion of her DrPH Viva Voce

The department would like to congratulate Dr Cathering Thamarai for the successful completion of her Doctor of Public Health Viva Voce. The title of her thesis is “Parental Report of the association between screen time and social-emotional development of children aged 18 and 36 months old in the district of Gombak, Malaysia.” She was supervised by Associate Professor Dr Mas Ayu Said and Associate Professor Dr Nik Daliana Nik Farid. Her external examiner for the thesis is Prof Dr Shamsul Azhar Shah from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the internal examiner is Dr Nur Afiqah Mohd Salleh.

She has published several peer-reviewed publications:

  1. Arumugam CT, Said MA, Nik Farid ND. Screen-based media and young children: Review and recommendations. Malays Fam Physician. 2021 Jun 4;16(2):7-13. PDF
  2. Arumugam, C.T. (2020), ‘Disconnect to reconnect’. J Paediatr Child Health, 56: 1638-1638. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpc.15061

She also presented papers at conferences and has received awards for some of her presentations

  1. Disconnect to Reconnect (Oral presentation) – University level Three-minute Thesis Competition – 1st Runner-up (Science Category)
  2. Screen Time and Social Emotional Development (Poster presentation) – 13th National Conference for Clinical Research 2020 – Top 20 Best e-Posters
  3. Early Exposure to Screen-based Media and Social Emotional Development (Oral presentation) – 2nd World Conference on Children and Youth Virtual – Best Overall Presenter
  4. Electronic Media and Early Childhood Social Emotional Development (Oral presentaiton) – 51st Asia Pacific Academic Consortium of Public Health (APACPH) Conference at Bangkok, Thailand
  5. Electronic Media and Early Childhood Social Emotional Development (Poster presentation) – 51st Asia Pacific Academic Consortium of Public Health (APACPH) Conference at Bangkok, Thailand
  6. Screen Time and Early Childhood Social Emotional Development (Oral presentation) – Junior Pitch-it Challenge at the University Malaya Research Carnival, Kuala Lumpur – 1st Prize Winner

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