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Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools
Welcome to the SHINE October 2024 Newsletter
- SHINE Mental Health Survey relaunch for 2024_25
- Pilot a new secondary school resource with Generation Scotland & SHINE
- Invitation to participate in SHINE affiliated research projects
- Festival of Social Sciences event 6th Nov: JournHey! app ready for testing
- Other events and research opportunities for school communities:
- Supporting young people who self-harm - have your say in this new survey from researchers at the University of Exeter
- Introducing the Good Measure study (understanding how sexual wellbeing impacts on young people's mental health)
Relaunch of the SHINE mental health survey
SHINE Mental Health Survey relaunch
The SHINE mental health survey is now, once again, available to schools who are members of the SHINE network, following a successful pilot.
Huge thanks to the six schools who took part in the pilot to test the data collection process. Following the pilot, we have made a few tweaks to the data collection process and are now testing the cleaning and reporting procedures.
The mental health survey pack is only accessible to individual member schools who have completed the pre-survey registration form online or via Local Authority data collections which have been agreed in advance with the SHINE team.
Pilot a new teaching resource for secondary schools.
Generation Scotland and SHINE have been collaborating to develop a new teaching resource for secondary schools to increase knowledge of health data research. Scotland’s public health relies on volunteers taking part in research projects to better understand health and well-being in Scotland.
We would like to support young people’s understanding of health research in order to give them more confidence to engage with science. The resource has been designed to be flexible and adaptive to the needs of the class and can be delivered in a range of classes including PSE, Sciences, Maths and Social Sciences. The resource consists of 3 x 40 minute lessons aimed at S1-S3:
- What is health data research?
- What is data linkage?
- What is data ethics and why does it matter?
The free resource is now available on the www.gen.scot website at https://genscot.ed.ac.uk/why-big-data-matters-lesson-plan, if you would like to pilot the resources and provide feedback.
Invitation to participate in SHINE affiliated research projects
Trial a new intervention, evaluate a programme or test a new method of collecting data. Work with researchers in your school to find solutions to YP HWB challenges.
JournHey! health app co-produced with young people
A new Android health app, JournHey!, has been created and named thanks to the involvement and ideas from young people in SHINE schools as part of the Crowdsourcing for Adolescent Health project.
Look out for the upcoming event featuring the new health app at the Festival of Social Sciences on Wednesday 6th November 2024 from 09.30 to 16.00. School groups are invited to attend in person at Edinburgh Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, Edinburgh. School or youth groups who would like to attend should contact andrew.j.williams@ed.ac.uk to register.
Within the app users can:
- collect data on their diet, activity, sleep and wellbeing
- log details of what they think influences these four aspects of their health
- analyse their own data to spot patterns and identify what has the greatest influence on their health as citizen scientists.
- work together to discuss the greatest influences on their health, and if appropriate start petitions for change (crowdsourcing).
Find out more about workshops in your school below:
The app can also be used by teachers to set specific class projects around these behaviours and the building blocks of health. This project will give students insights into the political (citizenship) as well as scientific processes. Through bringing together health and environmental data the app can be used within science, geography, physical education as well as PSHE classes.
The team from the University of Edinburgh can also come out to schools to run workshops related to the app, as well as working with you remotely. Please contact Andrew (andrew.j.williams@ed.ac.uk) if you are interested to know more.
Other events and research opportunities for school communities
The Good Measure research project (funded by UKRI) aims to advance understanding of the links between adolescent sexuality, gender identity development and mental health and wellbeing.
Young people aged 14-19 are invited to take part in a short online survey which is testing a new measure of sexual wellbeing for use in future surveys on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Current surveys on adolescent mental health often skip over questions on sex and sexuality, even though these topics matter to young people. Help researchers to ask survey questions that are relevant and meaningful to young people. Take part in our anonymous 10-minute survey and enter a prize draw with the chance to win £50! https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cAdbL5FeijEKDQ2 NO experience needed.
What is the Good Measure project about? Sexuality development in adolescence is normal and healthy but can also involve difficult and harmful experiences, thoughts and feelings including shame and stigma. Despite sex and sexuality being a key element of many young people’s lives, there is very little research addressing links between young people's sexual lives and their mental health.
Survey questions on sexual wellbeing Using data from workshops and interviews with young people, and building on our previous work in the Natsal study, we have developed and tested a new series of survey questions on young people's thoughts and feelings about sex. The next stage is testing these survey questions with a diverse range of young people aged 14-19 from across the UK to make sure they are relevant and meaningful.
You can find more information about Good Measure on the website or for further questions or to see a full copy of the survey questions, please get in touch with us at goodmeasure@glasgow.ac.uk.
All the best,
The SHINE Team
Dawn Haughton
Schools Health and Wellbeing Improvement Research Network (SHINE) Manager
E-mail: Dawn.Haughton@glasgow.ac.uk
Web: www.gla.ac.uk/shine
Twitter: @ScotlandSHINE
