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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How does the association between special education need and absence vary overtime and across special education need types?
We investigated special education needs (SEN) as a risk factor for absenteeism. For 418,455 mainstream secondary school students from 151 local authorities in England, multilevel linear regression models were run to investigate the association between SEN, SEN types and absenteeism during their secondary school period from year 7 to year 11.
Authors: Lereya, T., Cattan, S, Yoon, Y., Gilbert, R. & Deighton, J. (2022).
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Predictors of child and adolescent mental health treatment outcome
We examined the predictors of treatment outcome or improvement in mental health difficulties for young people accessing child and adolescent mental health services.
Authors: Edbrooke-Childs, J., Rashid, A., Ritchie, B., & Deighton, J. (2022).
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Connecting over the internet: establishing the therapeutic alliance in an internet-based treatment for depressed adolescents
This study uses data collected during a pilot evaluation of a psychodynamic internet-based therapy for depressed adolescents. The study uses qualitative methods to analyse transcripts of text-based communication between the young people and their therapists. The aim is to identify and describe the key features of therapeutic alliance, and reflect upon the implications for theory and clinical practice.
Authors: Leibovich, L., Mechler, J., Lindqvist, K., Mortimer, R., Edbrooke-Childs, J. & Midgley, N. (2022).
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Unpacking the active ingredients of internet-based psychodynamic therapy for adolescents
Internet-based psychodynamic psychotherapy (iPDT) for adolescents has been found to be effective for treating depression, but not much is known about its active ingredients. This study explored the techniques used in chat sessions in an iPDT program for depressed adolescents, and to investigate whether they predicted improvement in depression symptoms.
Authors: Leibovich, L., Mechler, J., Lindqvist, K., Mortimer, R., Edbrooke-Childs, J., & Midgley, N. (2022).
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Barriers and facilitators to sustaining school-based mental health and wellbeing interventions: a systematic review
In this review, the barriers and facilitators to sustaining mental health and wellbeing interventions in schools
are explored.Authors: Moore, A., Stapley, E., Hayes, D., Town, R., and Deighton, J. (2022).
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Gender difference in the change of adolescents’ mental health and subjective wellbeing trajectories
This study investigated any emerging developmental trends of gender differences in mental health problems and subjective wellbeing for young people from early to mid-adolescence in England.
Authors: Yoon, Y., Eisenstadt. M, Lereya. T, Deighton. J. (2022).
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A qualitative study of how adolescents’ use of coping strategies and support varies in line with their experiences of adversity
Our aim was twofold: First, to explore the coping strategies and sources of support that adolescents identify as protective (or not) in the face of difficulty over a three-year period; second, to examine how and why this may vary in line with the levels of adversity that they report experiencing in life.
Authors: Stapley, E., Stock. S, Deighton. J, Demkowicz. O (2022).
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Idiographic patient reported outcome measures (I-PROMs) for routine outcome monitoring in psychological therapies: position paper
Idiographic patient-reported outcome measures (I-PROMs) are a growing set of individualised tools for use in routine outcome monitoring (ROM) in psychological therapies. This paper presents a position statement on their conceptualisation, use and analysis, based on contemporary evidence and clinical practice.
Authors: Sales, C. M. D., Ashworth, M., Ayis, S., Barkham, M., Edbrooke‐Childs, J., Faísca, L., Jacob. J, Xu. D, Cooper, M. (2002).
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Digital companion choice to support teachers’ stress self-management: systematic approach through taxonomy creation
There are thousands of digital companions designed for emotional well-being and stress, including websites, wearables and smartphone apps. The aim of this study is to establish a process for creating a taxonomy to support systematic choice of digital companions for teachers' stress self-management.
Authors: Manning, J. B., Blandford, A., Edbrooke-Childs, J., & Marshall, P. (2022).
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A transdiagnostic, emotion regulation app (Eda) for children: design, development, and lessons learned
This study aims to present the development and design process of a new mental health app for children that targets their emotion regulation abilities. We describe the creation of a new interdisciplinary development framework to guide the design process and explain how each activity informed different app features.
Authors: Moltrecht, B., Patalay, P., Bear, H., Deighton, J., & Edbrooke-Childs, J. (2022).