Resilience, Ethnicity & AdolesCent Mental Health

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Resilience, Ethnicity & AdolesCent Mental Health

Aims

The Resilience, Ethnicity & AdolesCent Mental Health (REACH) study aims to understand the impact that social circumstances and experiences have on young people’s mental health as they grow up in south London

We examine the developmental origins of mental health problems among adolescents from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds. To achieve this, we are conducting, in south London (UK), a school-based accelerated cohort study. To investigate novel questions on the developmental origins of mental health problems in adolescents we are collecting extensive data at each time point: a) on a range of mental health problems; b) on a range of risk and protective factors, and c) in a nested sub-sample, on putative psychological and biological (i.e., HPA axis related) mechanisms.

We further seek to examine the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the young people in our cohort, namely whether there is any evidence of variation in impacts by social and ethnic group, by pre-existing risks (e.g., prior mental health problems), and by the direct consequences of Covid-19, social restrictions, and school closures.

Public involvement and engagement

The meaningful engagement and involvement of young people from disadvantaged and marginalised groups, schools serving diverse inner-city communities, and the wider public is central to our work. We work with young people, schools, and our community partners, BigKid Foundation, McPin Foundation, and Black Thrive, to co-produce and disseminate our research and to engage widely with stakeholders and the general public. Below are a series of links to selected outputs from our engagement programme.

A full summary of REACH's engagement activities and testimonials is available HERE

Creative outputs from our Young People Community Champions:

Mental health awareness materials:

Science exhibitions, festivals and conferences:

Community festivals: