Veena Muraleetharan

Biographic Data

ID1733971
NAMEVeena Muraleetharan
GIVEN NAMESVeena
FAMILY NAMEMuraleetharan
SIGNATUREMURALEETHARAN V
AFFILIATIONSLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
ORCID0000-0002-5723-1219
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS7
TOTAL CITATIONS2
WORKS AS AUTHOR7
WORKS AS EDITOR0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX1

  • Engagement with and Acceptability of a School-based Relationships and Sexual Health Intervention

    Open AccessRebecca Meiksin, Ruth Ponsford et al.ARTICLESexuality Research and Social…2026

    Evidence suggests that school-based relationships and sex education plus school-level actions may be effective in promoting sexual health. We conducted a trial of a relationships and sexual-health intervention in English secondary schools. We draw on nested qualitative research to explore student engagement and acceptability. Twenty-four intervention schools participating in a randomised trial delivered a two-year programme aiming to comprise cla…

  • The association of positive educational experiences with adolescents’ depressive symptoms

    Open AccessG J Melendez-Torres, Veena Muraleetharan et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Public Health2026

    Introduction The school environment influences adolescent health through both individual experiences, such as one’s own engagement with school, and broader school-level factors, such as aggregate student levels of engagement, affecting all students. For mental-health outcomes, existing evidence more consistently supports individual-level influences than school-level effects. In relation to depression, negative student-level educational experience…

  • Factors affecting the implementation of a whole-school relationships and sexual health intervention

    Open AccessRuth Ponsford, Rebecca Meiksin et al.ARTICLESex Education2026

    Whole-school relationships and sexual health interventions represent promising approaches to promoting healthy sexual development. However, data from a randomised controlled trial of the Positive Choices whole-school intervention demonstrate these may be challenging to implement in English secondary schools. We draw on qualitative data to examine staff perspectives on the implementation of the intervention and the factors affecting delivery. Inte…

  • Understanding the limited effectiveness of a whole-school relationships and sexual-health programme

    Open AccessVeena Muraleetharan, Ruth Ponsford et al.ARTICLESex Education2026

    Previous trials of whole-school relationships and sexual-health programmes have not reported on fidelity, reach or acceptability, despite the importance of these factors for interpreting outcomes. Our trial of the Positive Choices whole-school relationships and sexual-health programme found limited effectiveness in secondary schools in England. We aimed to understand whether sub-optimal fidelity, reach or acceptability might explain the results. …

  • Effects of a whole-school relationships and sexual health intervention on non-competent sexual debut

    Open AccessRuth Ponsford, Rebecca Meiksin et al.ARTICLEJournal of Epidemiology and…2026Cited by: 1References: 22

    BACKGROUND: Relationships and sex education (RSE) impacts some sexual behaviours but could be strengthened by incorporating whole-school approaches (eg, building engagement, providing contraception). These can prevent pregnancies and sexually-transmitted infections but are unevaluated in UK schools. METHODS: A cluster-randomised trial of 'Positive Choices' compared it with usual practice in English secondary schools. Intervention comprised: RSE, …

  • The mechanisms by which a whole-school intervention might improve sexual health

    Open AccessRuth Ponsford, Rebecca Meiksin et al.ARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2025References: 17

    Whole-school interventions go beyond classroom education, promoting health by modifying school environments. These can be effective in delaying sexual debut and increasing contraception use but mechanisms are poorly understood. Qualitative research within realist evaluation can explore mechanisms via building 'context-mechanism-outcome configurations', describing how interventions trigger mechanisms that interact with context to generate outcomes…

  • Understanding associations between sexual identity change and the mental health of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in the United Kingdom through longitudinal survey

    Open AccessVeena Muraleetharan, Catherine L SaundersARTICLESocial Science & Medicine2025Cited by: 1References: 50

    While the existence of poorer mental health among lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) populations is well-established, most research does not acknowledge sexual identity shifts when quantifying disparities. This study begins to fill this gap by examining associations between sexual identity change from 2011 to 2023 and current psychological wellbeing and mental health diagnoses self-reported between 2021 and 2023 in the United Kingdom. We utilized a …