Research

Research Projects | Academic Faculty | Library
AFC-Yale Bridge Programme | AFC-Yale-Baylor Research Consortium
CAMHS Evidence Based Practice Unit | CAMHS Outcomes Research Consortium
AFC and the research evidence base

Click here to read about the Anna Freud Centre's approach to evidence based practice.

Planned, current and recent research projects at AFC include

The establishment of an EEG laboratory at the Centre to help us get a better understanding of how children experience the world and identify potential problems earlier.
A randomized controlled trial (RCT) comparing parent-infant psychotherapy with treatment as usual for mothers and young infants experiencing difficulties.
A structured programme for tackling the problem of bullying in schools (in collaboration with colleagues at the Menninger Clinic at Baylor College of Medicine), known as CAPSLE (Creating a Peaceful School Learning Environment).
A Europe-wide project on Disorders and Coherence of the Embodied Self (DISCOS) - AFC is involved in a number of developmental studies exploring the development of social cognition in early childhood and adolescence.
The Adoption and Attachment Representations Study investigating the development of attachment relationships in children who were maltreated. and subsequently adopted. The study is now into its follow-up phase.
The development and evaluation of a parenting skills programme for adoptive families based on the Webster-Stratton Incredible Years programme.
The Child Psychotherapy Process Outcome Study (CPPOS) which aims to explore in depth the nature of the therapy process and its relation to outcome.
An investigation into the genetic and environmental contributors to the intergenerational transmission of attachment relationships.
Evaluation of a brief (8 to 12 session) intervention for children and families (SMART), the aim of which is to improve communication problem solving in the family through the promotion of mentalization.
The Better Bonds Project evaluating the effectiveness of Mellow Parenting in improving the relationship between mothers with borderline personality disorder and their infants aged between 18 months and 4 years of age.
The Hackney Children Stepping Forward Project evaluating an innovative early, nursery-based intervention service for children, with the aim of improving parent-child relationships.
A study of how children in the second year of life learn, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.
The Story Stem Assessment Profile, which will evaluate the effectiveness of the story stem method of analysing the quality of a child's relationship with its parents.
The Evaluation Project which looks at various services offered by the AFC and measures their effectiveness.
The Anna Freud Centre Infantlab looks into the emotional and social development of infants under 14 months old.

We have recently established an Academic Faculty for Empirical, Theoretical & Conceptual Psychoanalytic Research and Clinical Analysis at the Centre.

Our research is carried out in collaboration with the Yale University Child Study Center and the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor Medical College. Our historic links with Yale University have now been renewed through the new Anna Freud Centre/Yale Child Study Center Bridge Programme. Research teams from the Menninger Department of Psychiatry, the Anna Freud Centre and Yale Child Study Center form a developmental and clinical psychoanalytically inspired research consortium.

The Centre is committed to the systematic reviewing of mental health interventions in order to ensure that the most effective treatments are offered to children and families in need. The UK Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU), established in 2006, is based at AFC. The EBPU is the home of the CAMHS Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC), a learning collaboration between mental health professionals across the UK and Norway. Click here to read more about the Anna Freud Centre's approach to evidence based practice.

The Centre also has a library, which holds over 2,000 books and over a dozen journals, for those conducting academic research.