Young people with special educational needs (SENs) are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. Eighty seven percent of all violent youth offences in England are committed by those with an identified SEN (DfE, 2022). Understanding the link between youth offending and SEN will help to identify ways in which young people with SENs can be diverted away from the criminal justice system.

Depression is one of the most common medical complications in the perinatal period. Previous studies have suggested long-term consequences on infant, child and future offspring development. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between perinatal depression, offspring and partner outcomes in a multi-generational large scale longitudinal study. Furthermore, in order to fully understand the impact of perinatal depression, more research is needed to understand the genetics of perinatal depression.

This project will investigate whether community engagement is a modifiable health behaviour that can prevent and reduce youth anxiety and depression. Although community engagement (e.g., arts, culture, heritage, volunteering, community groups) is associated with reduced anxiety and depression, previous research is limited by not accounting for inequalities in mental health and community engagement, reliance on small studies with short follow-ups, and little evidence specifically in young people.

We will establish whether community engagement can reduce youth anxiety and depression, assess its equality of distribution internationally, and test whether individual- and society-level community engagement interventions can reduce youth anxiety and depression. We will use population-level longitudinal data from the UK, US, Australia, Japan, Egypt, and Norway. We will triangulate evidence from novel statistical methods for causal inference. These approaches have not yet been used in this field but are vital to examine associations independent of inequalities in mental health and community engagement. Cutting-edge cross-country evidence will demonstrate whether community engagement could be a public health intervention that reduces anxiety and depression. This project will facilitate further innovative research, inform population health policy and funding, and support development of large-scale interventions to reduce youth anxiety and depression globally.

Understanding how the influence of genes on BMI changes over the course of childhood holds important implications for understanding why BMI differs between children of different ages, and, ultimately, for understanding the biological basis of some adult diseases. We have recently developed an approach for interrogating longitudinal data along with genetic data to glean insights into genetic effects on health trajectories. In this project, we seek to understand whether the approach we have developed can help to clarify the age-varying effects of genes on BMI in childhood.

It's estimated that approximately one in ten children struggle with learning to read, a condition known as dyslexia. Dyslexia can have lasting effects on many aspects of life, including academic achievement, job opportunities, self-esteem, social interactions, and overall life satisfaction. These challenges are particularly significant when dyslexia goes undiagnosed, depriving individuals of much-needed support. Undetected dyslexia also contributes to societal costs, such as employment difficulties and mental health issues. Despite these challenges, individuals with dyslexia often possess unique problem-solving skills, yet barriers can limit their contributions to innovation and creativity.

Genetics is the primary known cause of dyslexia. Recently, collaborative research efforts have identified dozens of common genetic risk factors associated with dyslexia for the first time. This discovery underscores the complex nature of dyslexia and parallels findings in other neurodevelopmental disorders. Genetic research for other conditions such as autism, has progressed more rapidly thanks to the availability of large samples. This work has highlighted a crucial role for very rare genetic mutations. We anticipate that such rare variants also play a role in dyslexia. Detecting these rare variants requires genome sequencing technology in large samples.

We're embarking on the largest sequencing project ever conducted for dyslexia, utilizing a unique collection of samples amassed over decades and characterized with high-quality data by multiple research teams with a proven collaborative track record. Our cohort is enriched for severe cases and includes families with multiple affected members.

Our research will deepen our understanding of the genetic risk factors for dyslexia and illuminate the biological pathways involved in dyslexia and brain development. By comparing data with other conditions, we aim to identify genes specifically associated with dyslexia. In the long term, our findings may contribute to the development of early diagnostic strategies. We will share our results with the broader research community, creating a valuable resource for future dyslexia studies and related conditions, such as language disorders, dyscalculia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Our project offers a unique opportunity to engage with the public and discuss the neurobiological determinants of dyslexia. The Specific Learning Difficulties Network, an initiative we launched in 2022, will provide a platform to engage with different stakeholders, including individuals with lived experiences of dyslexia, teachers, clinicians, and policymakers. Our findings will provide evidence to explain the role of genetics, reduce stigma around dyslexia, and increase awareness.

Academic Pressure can be defined as fear of failure, concerns about the future, stress about workload and exams, worries about parental expectations, and competition with peers for grades. The UK has some of the highest levels of academic pressure in secondary schools, and this has risen in recent decades. Despite widespread concerns about academic pressure in the UK, it has rarely been investigated in relation to adolescent mental health. This project will investigate whether academic pressure is a modifiable causal risk factor for adolescent depression, self-harm and suicide. If so, academic pressure could be targeted in universal interventions in schools, to prevent adolescent depression, self-harm and suicide.

The purpose of this project is to expand the scope of a previous project (B3077) to include a broader range of environmental influences and outcomes pertinent to adolescent development. In this project, environmental influences, particularly during early development, will be examined as predictors of adolescent risk behaviors, such as risky sex, aggressive behavior problems, and delinquency. Genetic and epigenetic contributions will be examined as potential explanations for these associations and/or as controls.

This project sets out to investigate whether involvement in the arts is associated with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders among young people. By analysing data from this large community study tracking the development of young people over time, we aim to explore:
1) Current Relationship: We will look into the connection between participating in the arts and the mental health of young individuals at the same time.
2) Future Impact: We aim to understand if there's a link between participating in the arts at one time and later mental health outcomes of young people. This will help us determine if arts involvement could potentially act as a preventive measure against mental health issues.

By undertaking this careful analysis, we hope to provide high-quality evidence regarding the potential benefits of arts engagement in promoting good mental wellbeing in young people. This research could inform interventions and policies aimed at promoting mental health through creative activities, potentially offering valuable insights into preventive strategies for anxiety, depression, and eating disorders among young individuals.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic had an immense impact on people’s lives worldwide. This may be particularly true for those with mental health issues. In the UK, presentations to hospitals for self-harm decreased markedly during the early period of the pandemic, before returning to normal levels (Paterson et al., 2023). This reduction was also reported in a systematic review (John, Eyles et al. 2020). However, one study found increased cases of self-harm thoughts in the emergency department, particularly for adolescent females (Sara, Wu et al. 2023). Patterns also differed according to factors such as socioeconomic status and age (Sara, Wu et al. 2023).

Results from a population-based survey suggest that suicidal thoughts and anxiety disorders increased during the pandemic, particularly among young adults, lower socioeconomic groups, and those with a history of mental health conditions (O'Connor, Wetherall et al. 2021). However, a population-wide data linkage study found unchanged patterns among individuals aged over 65 years, people living alone, or residents of affluent areas (Paterson et al., 2023). In another study, factors found to influence hospital presentations for self-harm during COVID-19 in the UK included COVID-19 infection, lockdown restrictions, limited access to psychiatric healthcare services, isolation, and mental health problems (Hawton, Lascelles et al. 2021).

The objective of this project is to identify the factors associated with self-harm thoughts and behaviours among young adults in the ALSPAC cohort during COVID-19. The study will contribute to the existing literature by using ALSPAC pre and post-pandemic data, collected prospectively, to identify different risk factors for self-harm thoughts and behaviours in the population. We will examine ten different risk factors related to self-harm thoughts and behaviours including participants’ demographics, mental health and personality, physical factors, and protective factors.