The Anna Freud Centre’s online research library contains a collection of evidence-based material on children and young people’s mental health, written and co-written by our team. The research explores factors relating to:
anxiety | behavioural difficulties | depression | digital mental health | empowering young people and families | early years | evaluation | fostering and adoption | intervention | maltreatment and abuse | measures | mentalization | methodology | neurodiversity | parents and carers| prevalence and trends | prevention | psychological therapies | resources | risk and resilience | social care | trauma | wellbeing
The library is managed by our team of evidence experts. It is updated on a regular basis and currently consists of research published between 2018 and 2023.
Please be aware that links to our open-access papers lead to external sites and that the management, data handling and administration of these external sites is not the Anna Freud Centre’s responsibility.
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First Experimental Study of Transference Work–In Teenagers (FEST–IT): a multicentre, observer- and patient-blind, randomised controlled component study
Little is known about the influence on outcome of exploration of the patient-therapist relationship (that is, transference work) in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. We hypothesized that depressed adolescents would have better long-term effects from psychoanalytic psychotherapy with than without transference work.
Authors: Ulberg, R., Hummelen, B., Hersoug, A., Midgley, N., Høglend, P., & Dahl, H. (2021).
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The alliance with young people: where have we been, where are we going?
This article aims to (a) critically review the existing knowledge on the alliance in youth psychotherapy from its definition to the existing research and (b) discuss some of the implications of this knowledge for clinical practice ad future research.
Authors: Cirasola, A., & Midgley, N. (2022).
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How to do things with questions: the role of patient’s questions in short term psychoanalytic psychotherapy (STPP) with depressed adolescents
This qualitative study aims to bridge this gap by exploring the role of patients’ questions in short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy with adolescents suffering from depression. This is a single case study, focusing on the interaction between the patient and his therapist when questions were asked by the patient, using conversation analysis methodology.
Authors: Yadlin, Y., Edginton, E., Lepper, G., & Midgley, N. (2022).
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Alliance ruptures and resolutions in short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for adolescent depression: an empirical case study
This study aimed to better understand the process of alliance rupture–resolution and its role in a good-outcome case of a depressed adolescent treated with short-term psychoanalytic-psychotherapy.
Authors: Cirasola, A., Martin, P., Fonagy P., Eubanks, C., Muran J. C., & Midgley, N. (2022).
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The therapeutic relationship and change process in child psychotherapy: a qualitative, longitudinal study of the views of children, parents and therapists
Through the perspectives of children, parents and therapists, this study explored the therapeutic relationship as a change facilitator in different moments of psychotherapy.
Authors: Nuñez, L., Fernández, S., Alamo, N., Midgley, N., Capella, C., & Krause, M. (2022).
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The evidence base for psychoanalytic and psychodynamic interventions with children under five years of age and their caregivers: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The systematic review of 77 research studies, including 5,660 participants, shows that therapy in the very early months and years of life can help to prevent and reduce mental health difficulties both for parents and carers and their children by focusing on the crucial relationship between them.
Authors: Sleed, M., Li, E., Vainieri, I., & Midgley, N. (2022).
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Psychological mediators of the association between childhood emotional abuse and depression: a systematic review
This review critically evaluates empirical studies examining psychological mediators of the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and subsequent depression.
Authors: Li, E., Luyten, P., & Midgley, N. (2020).
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Mapping the journey from epistemic mistrust in depressed adolescents receiving psychotherapy
The present study aims to create a typology of depressed adolescents’ experiences regarding their different journeys through the course of psychotherapy in relation to issues of epistemic trust and mistrust over a 2-year period.
Authors: Li, E., Midgley, N., Luyten, P., Sprecher, E. A., Campbell, C. (2022).
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Subjective wellbeing among psychotherapists during the coronavirus disease pandemic: a cross-cultural survey from 12 European countries
The aim of this study is to examine the amount of the total variance of the subjective well-being (SWB) of psychotherapists from 12 European countries explained by between-country vs. between-person differences regarding its cognitive (life satisfaction) and affective components (positive affect [PA] and negative affect [NA]).
Authors: Van Hoy, A., et al. (2022).
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Trust me! Parental embodied mentalizing predicts infant cognitive and language development in longitudinal follow-up
In this investigation we employed both verbal and non-verbal, body-based, approaches to parental mentalizing, to examine whether parental mentalizing in a clinical sample predicts children’s cognitive and language development 12 months later.
Authors: Shai, D., Laor Black, A., Spencer, R., Sleed, M., Baradon, T., Nolte, T., Fonagy, P. (2022).