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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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  • An approach to linking education, social care and electronic health records for children and young people in South London: a linkage study of child and adolescent mental health service data

    Creation of linked mental health, social and education records for research to support evidence-based practice for regional mental health services.

    Authors: Downs, J. M., Ford, T., Stewart, R., Epstein, S., Shetty, H., Little, R., Jewell, A., Broadbent, M., Deighton, J., Mostafa, Gilbert, T., Hotopf, M., and Hayes, R. (2019).

    Download the open access paper

  • Mental health difficulties, attainment and attendance: a cross-sectional study

    The aim of this study was to investigate the association between educational attainment, absenteeism and mental health difficulties while controlling for various child characteristics such as special educational needs and socioeconomic background.

    Authors: Lereya, S.T., Patel, M., dos Santos, J.P.G.A., and Deighton, J. (2019).

    Read the abstract

  • Evaluating the Peer Education Project in secondary schools

    The purpose of this paper is to determine the efficacy of the Peer Education Project (PEP), a school-based, peer-led intervention designed to support secondary school students to develop the skills and knowledge they need to safeguard their mental health and that of their peers.

    Authors: Eisenstein, C., Zamperoni, V., Humphrey, N., Deighton, J., Wolpert, M., Rosan, C., Bohan, H., Kousoulis, A., Promberger, M., and Edbrooke-Childs, J. (2019).

    Download the open access paper

  • Ethnic differences in referral routes to youth mental health services

    This study aimed to examine whether there are ethnic differences in referral route to youth mental health services.

    Authors: Ebrooke-Childs, J., Patalay, P. (2019). 

    Download the open access paper

  • Prevalence of mental health problems in schools: poverty and other risk factors amongst 28,000 adolescents in England

    This study analyses a large-scale community-based dataset of 28 160 adolescents to explore school-based prevalence of mental health problems and characteristics that predict increased odds of experiencing them.

    Authors: Deighton, J., Lereya, T.L., Casey, P., Patalay, P., Humphrey, N., & Wolpert, M. (2019).

    Download the open access paper

  • Strategies not accompanied by a mental health professional to address anxiety and depression in children and young people: a scoping review of range and a systematic review of effectiveness

    This Review reports on a scoping review followed by a systematic review to consider interventions designed to address or manage depression or anxiety in children and young people up to the age of 25 years without the need to involve mental health professionals. 

    Authors: Wolpert, M., Dalzell, K., Ullman, R., Garland, L., Cortina, M., Hayes, D., Patalay, P., & Law, D. (2018).

    Read the abstract

  • Facing Shadows: working with young people to coproduce a short film about depression

    Here we describe and reflect on the four-day coproduction workshops in which researchers, young people and film-makers coproduced ‘Facing Shadows’, a short animation about depression and therapy.

    Authors: Dunn, V., O’Keeffe, S., Stapley, E., & Midgley, N. (2018).

    Download the open access paper

  • Maternal mental health at 5 years and childhood overweight or obesity at 11 years: evidence from the UK Millennium Cohort Study

    We sought to determine whether children's exposure to medium or severe distress at 5 years was associated with increased risks of overweight and obesity when they were aged 11 years. We also investigated whether any association was attenuated after accounting for potential confounding and mediating factors.

    Authors: Hope, S., Micali, N., Deighton, J., Law, C. (2018).

    Download the open access paper

  • What outcomes count? A review of outcomes measured for adolescent depression between 2007 and 2017

    This systematic review explored the extent to which multidimensional and multi-informant outcome measurements have been used in clinical research for adolescent depression in the past decade and how patterns have evolved over time.

    Authors: Krause, K., Bear, H., Edbrooke-Childs, J., & Wolpert, M. (2018).

    Read the abstract

  • A qualitative exploration of the role of leadership in service transformation in child and adolescent mental health services

    This study aimed to understand the role of local leaders and frontline practitioners in service transformation in child and adolescent mental health services.

    Authors: Edbrooke-Childs, J., Calderon, A., McDonnell, M., Hirvonen, H., Deighton, J., Wolpert, M. (2018).

    Read the abstract

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