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Using health and well-being data to support improvements in mental health in schools
Welcome to the SHINE November 2024 Newsletter
- Health Behaviour in School-aged Children final international survey report: Social contexts
- ABSAIL: Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to Improve Long-term outcomes
- Update on progress: SHINE affiliated research projects
- Other events and research opportunities for school communities:
- Respect Me 2024 Anti-bullying week 11th-15th Nov resources for schools
- Pilot a new teaching resource for secondary schools
- Supporting young people who self-harm - have your say in this new survey from researchers at the University of Exeter
Health Behaviour in School-aged Children final international survey report : adolescent social contexts
Volume 7 in the WHO/Europe and HBSC report series, A focus on adolescent social contexts in Europe, central Asia and Canada: Health Behaviour in School-aged Children international report from the 2021/2022 survey, was released on 13th November. Co-authored by Jo Inchley, Judith Brown and Mary Wilson, the report highlights key trends affecting adolescent well-being. Findings show that only 68% of adolescents report high levels of family support, a significant drop compared to the previous survey in 2018, while school pressure has increased sharply, particularly for adolescent girls. These trends are affecting the mental health and well-being of millions of young people, particularly older adolescents and those from less well-off families.
All seven reports from the International HBSC 2022 survey round, can be found below:
- Volume 1: Mental health
- Volume 2: Violence and bullying
- Volume 3: Substance use
- Volume 4: Physical activity, eating behaviours, weight status and body image
- Volume 5: Sexual health
- Volume 6: Social media use and gaming
- Volume 7: Social context of adolescent health
ABSAIL: Addressing Barriers to School Attendance to improve Lon-term outcomes
The ABSAIL project, which began on 1st July 2024, is now reaching the end of its first phase which has included a policy mapping exercise across all 32 Local Authorities and a literature review. We would like to thank all the Local Authorities and SHINE associates who have helped us with this piece of work. The information gathered is currently being written up into a report and used to inform the invitations to six Local Authorities to participate in the Case Studies. The study team were delighted to convene the first advisory board meeting at the end of October. Valuable insights from parents, clinical practice, Local Authorities, schools, Educational Psychologists and 3rd sector groups as well as academics working in the field of Emotionally-based School Non-Attendance contributed to the draft schools survey and case study interview schedules being developed. The school survey will be issued in February/March - we hope that network members and associates will facilitate the distribution of this survey in order to learn from as broad and diverse perspectives as possible.
SHINE affiliated projects update
The Clock Off Study team worked with 4 SHINE secondary schools to trial an intervention to reduce the night-time use of internet-enabled devices. Schools benefited from free training and resources from the study team and the Sleep Action charity, which was augmented by peer to peer strategies to advocate for the benefits of sleep. Young people were also involved in mapping the factors which impact on night-time use of IEDs.
45 young people from 1 primary & 2 secondary SHINE schools worked with the AMBIENT-Teens study team to review new Somnify sleep radar devices to test their effectiveness in capturing CYP sleep patterns. The young people benefited from meeting with the research team to see their own sleep data and receive advice on positive sleep routines. Young people were given the opportunity to conduct their own research with their sleep data supported by the team.
Dawn Haughton and Jo Inchley from the SHINE team joined Local Authority contacts, school practitioners, Educational Psychologists, 3rd sector groups, parent/carer groups and young people with lived experience at the first 2 symposium events of the Neurodiversity in Scottish Schools study. The study aims to understand better how school environments can best support neurodiverse young people in a more universally inclusive environment.
JournHey! Working with young people at the Festival of Social Sciences
The Health Influencers event took place on 6th November in Edinburgh as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences. Groups from two SHINE schools took park. At the workshop we focused on the importance of sleep and what impacts on how well we sleep. Subsequently, there were stations where the participating pupil’s heard about how the JournHey? app (www.journhey.info) will work and made suggestions. The final station included writing petitions (like the one shown) about a determinant of their health identified through the app. We were delighted to be joined by Dona Milne, the Director of Public Health for NHS Lothian and Laurene Edgar, Director of the Lothian Association of Youth Clubs. Laurene and Dona joined some of the stations and commented on the petitions. They asked for copies of the petitions and found it really valuable to hear directly from the young people. The app will be launching in the New Year, and if you would like to know more please contact andrew.j.williams@ed.ac.uk.
Other events and research opportunities for school communities
Respect Me #Anti-bullying week took place this month from 11th -15th November
The theme of this year's RespectMe anti-bullying campaign was "Respect - what does it mean to you?" The pupils at Dunfermline High School created a film which can be shown in assemblies. Head to the resource page on the website for downloadable resources for schools
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.
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
