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KCL's Centre for Society and Mental Health

Understanding the impacts of social disadvantage and injustices on young people’s mental health

Project overview

The Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London is carrying out research about understanding the impacts of social disadvantage and injustices on young people’s mental health.  

 Some examples of social injustices are: poverty, insecure housing, structural racism, bullying, and discrimination.  

 The researchers want to understand how to create a more equal playing field for young people experiencing these issues in order to prevent mental health issues. 

Project details

Most mental health issues first show up during adolescence (often defined as age 11-18). Their frequency, type, and persistence is affected by genetics and experiences.   

It is important to understand how different factors may increase or decrease the risks to mental health during adolescence. This will allow better strategies for preventing and treating mental health issues to be developed. 

Young people with lived experience need to be at the centre of young people’s mental health research to ensure it is as effective, relevant and appropriate as possible. This ensures that the outcomes of the project will be as useful to them as possible. 

10 members of our Young People’s Network (aged 14-21) have formed a Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) to support King’s College London’s research. The group will help the researchers understand the best ways to work alongside young people, to find out what the key issues are and how best to address them.  

Our young people will also be involved in shaping the research proposal for the second cohort of the REACH (Resilience, Ethnicity, and AdolesCent Mental Health) project. This study is investigating how life experiences affect mental health issues over time in large, ethnically diverse groups of teenagers.  

For more information about the project, visit the KCL webpage. 

For more information about the involvement work that McPin is doing, please email [email protected]

Work with us

We are always excited to hear from others who want to collaborate on mental health research. From delivering peer research to helping you with public involvement strategies and providing training, get in touch to chat.