Well-being

In September 2022, Dr Emily Lowthian was awarded £13,000 by eNurture (UKRI) to conduct research on young people’s online communication behaviours and social media use, and how this is related to mental, physical, and social wellbeing. The project used data on 1,432 young people in the UK aged 9-16 years; the data was collected by Understanding Society and re-utilised for the project aims.

Working with young people aged 14 - 22 years old, dinosaur comics were suggested as a method of sharing the results with young people.

Social media platforms are being used to host the comic strips for young people: see @wellness.rex on Instagram and TikTok.

For educators more information is available in a blog post here.

Researchers within the Department are actively engaging with a range of well-being themes. They have explored the mental health of children who have experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences – defined as living with someone with a common or serious mental health condition, an alcohol problem, or who had died, or experienced victimisation. In physical and social well-being, they have examined how children's health behaviours and interactions were impacted by Covid-19 including their eating habits, sleep patterns and engagement in physical activities. 

Researchers have also evaluated school-based programmes which aim to promote children and young people's well-being, such as outdoor learning initiatives like the Daily Mile. Their findings point to the potential of a dedicated curriculum time for physically active breaks in fostering children’s relationships with peers and teachers.

In the area of economic well-being, researchers have explored the complex topic of social class and how factors such as family affluence impact children's well-being outcomes. 

The team have also explored how educational outcomes are impacted by parental substance use of alcohol and illicit drugs.

Lowthian, E., Anthony, R., Evans, A., Daniel, R., Long, S., Bandyopadhyay, A., John, A., Bellis, M. A., & Paranjothy, S. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and child mental health: An electronic birth cohort study. BMC Medicine, 19(1), 172. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-021-02045-x.  

Lowthian, E. (2022). The Secondary Harms of Parental Substance Use on Children’s Educational Outcomes: A Review. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-021-00433-2.

Lowthian, E., Page, N., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Murphy, S., Hewitt, G., & Moore, G. (2021). Using Latent Class Analysis to Explore Complex Associations Between Socioeconomic Status and Adolescent Health and Well-Being. Journal of Adolescent Health. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.06.013.

Marchant, E., Lowthian, E., Crick, T., Griffiths, L. J., Fry, R., Dadaczynski, K., Okan, O., James, M., Cowley, L., Torabi, F., Kennedy, J., Akbari, A., Lyons, R., & Brophy, S. (2022). Pre-COVID-19 pandemic health-related behaviours in children (2018–2020) and association with being tested for SARS-CoV-2 and testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 (2020–2021): A retrospective cohort study using survey data linked with routine health data in Wales, UK. BMJ Open, 12(9), e061344. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-061344.

Marchant, E., Todd, C., Cooksey, R., Dredge, S., Jones, H., Reynolds, D., Stratton, G., Dwyer, R., Lyons, R., & Brophy, S. (2019). Curriculum-based outdoor learning for children aged 9-11: A qualitative analysis of pupils’ and teachers’ views. PLOS ONE 14(5): e0212242. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0212242.

Marchant, E., Todd, C., Stratton, G., & Brophy, S. (2020). The Daily Mile: Whole-school recommendations for implementation and sustainability. A mixed-methods study. PloS one, 15(2), e0228149. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228149.  

James, M., Marchant, E., Defeyter, M.A., Woodside, J. & Brophy, S. (2021). Impact of school closures on the health and well-being of primary school children in Wales UK: a routine data linkage study using the HAPPEN Survey (2018–2020) BMJ Open; 11:e051574. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051574.