UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Children and young people’s experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research: learning from two school-based pilot projects

Demkowicz, O; Ashworth, E; Mansfield, R; Stapley, E; Miles, H; Hayes, D; Burrell, K; ... Deighton, J; + view all (2020) Children and young people’s experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research: learning from two school-based pilot projects. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health , 14 , Article 35. 10.1186/s13034-020-00341-7. Green open access

[thumbnail of Mansfield_Children and young people’s experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research- learning from two school-based pilot projects_VoR.pdf]
Preview
Text
Mansfield_Children and young people’s experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research- learning from two school-based pilot projects_VoR.pdf - Published Version

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In recent years there has been growing interest in child and adolescent mental health and wellbeing, alongside increasing emphasis on schools as a crucial site for research and intervention. This has coincided with an increased use of self-report mental health and wellbeing measures in research with this population, including in school-based research projects. We set out to explore the way that children and young people perceive and experience completing mental health and wellbeing measures, with a specific focus on completion in a school context, in order to inform future measure and research design. METHODS: We conducted semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 133 participants aged 8–16 years following their completion of mental health and wellbeing measures as part of school-based research programmes, using thematic analysis to identify patterns of experience. FINDINGS: We identified six themes: Reflecting on emotions during completion; the importance of anonymity; understanding what is going to happen; ease of responding to items; level of demand; and interacting with the measure format. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings offer greater insight into children and young people’s perceptions and experiences in reporting on their mental health and wellbeing. Such understanding can be used to support more ethical and robust data collection procedures in child and adolescent mental health research, both for data quality and ethical purposes. We offer several practical recommendations for researchers, including facilitating this in a school context.

Type: Article
Title: Children and young people’s experiences of completing mental health and wellbeing measures for research: learning from two school-based pilot projects
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1186/s13034-020-00341-7
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00341-7
Language: English
Additional information: © 2020 BioMed Central Ltd. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Mental health outcomes, Wellbeing, Measurement, Child and adolescent mental health, Self report, School surveys, Measure design, Research ethics
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10110655
Downloads since deposit
66Downloads
Download activity - last month
Download activity - last 12 months
Downloads by country - last 12 months

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item