Pearse McCusker is a PhD researcher in the School of Psychology at Ulster University, funded by the Northern Ireland & North East Doctoral Training Partnership (NINE DTP) Scholarship. He completed a BSc (Hons) in Psychology with First Class Honours at Ulster University, where his undergraduate dissertation explored mental health literacy and the stigmatisation of sports match officials. He then achieved a Master’s of Research (MRes) in Psychology with Distinction at Ulster University. His MRes dissertation focused on the measurement and assessment of Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) and its association with somatisation, using data from the international MAGIC project, focusing on the U.S. subsample.

Pearse’s doctoral research continues this line of inquiry, examining the latent structure and cross-cultural measurement of PGD and related ICD-11 mental health disorders, including depression, generalised anxiety disorder, somatisation, and defeat and entrapment, using large-scale datasets from Ireland and the United Kingdom. His broader research interests span grief and bereavement, as well as disenfranchised grief in sport. He also focuses on the application of advanced quantitative and psychometric methods, including exploratory structural equation modelling, factor analysis, regression, and correlational analyses, and how these can be applied to psychological and clinical research.

As part of his first doctoral thesis chapter, Pearse is developing a data archive of grief-related studies conducted in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He is systematically cataloguing the measures, samples, and diagnostic criteria used across existing research to evaluate their comparability and clinical relevance. This foundational work supports the broader aim of improving cross-study consistency and data harmonisation in the assessment of PGD and related constructs.

He is also actively involved in collaborative projects, including one investigating the predictive role of sleep disturbances on both negative (anxiety, depression, psychosis) and positive (wellbeing, hopefulness, happiness) psychological outcomes, and another exploring the factor structure and conceptual distinctiveness of defeat and entrapment. Looking ahead, Pearse is also keen to branch into an area he is particularly passionate about: the study of disenfranchised grief within sport. This underexplored yet meaningful domain has significant implications for athlete wellbeing, identity loss, and stigma within sporting contexts.

Pearse is committed to producing research that advances the evidence base for the classification, assessment, and treatment of grief-related disorders, helping to inform clinical and public health practice across Ireland, the UK, and beyond.