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Young Lives Newsletter
October 2025
Young Lives is one of the few studies collecting longitudinal data on mental health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Our unique mixed-methods research, including lived experience analysis, provides a holistic, life-course perspective of risk and protective factors and effective strategies for building resilience. Read on to find out more...
New Policy Brief on Mental Health
Young Lives' new evidence shows that:
- Shocks and crises (COVID-19, climate change and conflict) significantly impact mental health.
- Early inequalities cast a long shadow on mental health in later life.
- Adolescence and early adulthood are critical periods for building resilience.
- Young women’s mental health is disproportionately affected by crises.
This brief sets out policy recommendations for the global community to step up action to promote, protect and care for young people’s mental health in low- and middle-income countries.
The pandemic and mental health: the lived experiences of vulnerable young women in Peru
Aurora and Daniela’s accounts describe profound suffering but they are not simply victims of circumstance. Their narratives express agency and resilience, challenging the disempowering portrayals often used to describe young people living in poverty. This resilience should be recognised - not romanticised - and, most importantly, it should inform the development of public policies and mental health services that respect and incorporate young women’s knowledge, values, and capacities.
Director Marta Favara gives
Wellcome Trust Guest Lecture
Young Lives Director Marta Favara was recently invited to give the Wellcome Trust's Guest Lecture.
During the lecture, Marta spoke about, among other things, Young Lives' holistic approach to mental health and the effects of conflict and climate on mental health.
BLOG: The Challenges of Measuring Stress in a Longitudinal Study
For the first time, Young Lives has collected over 5,000 hair samples from young people in Ethiopia, India & Peru to measure hair cortisol, a long-term marker for chronic stress. This is the most extensive hair cortisol study conducted in the Global South, advancing large-scale bio-sample research in low- & middle-income countries.
Interested in our methods, the challenges and what we learnt?
Young Lives, UNICEF and Save the Children Unite to Champion Child-Focused Climate Action at COP30
COP30 is just a few weeks away and Young Lives is stepping-up its work to ensure the unique vulnerabilities of children to climate change are prioritised in the negotiations. One of the top items on the agenda in Belem is the adoption of a new set of indicators to track the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA). We are collaborating with UNICEF and Save the Children to call for greater focus on child health, nutrition and education in the indicators, including through a series of policy briefs and – looking ahead – working together to highlight children and education during the critical GGA negotiations at COP30. We'll be sharing more of our work on the SDGs and adaptation during COP30 and over the coming months - watch this space...
Young Lives Joins Global and African-led Initiatives Championing Longitudinal Research
Young Lives is proud to be part of The Wellcome Global Learning Network. The Network brings together a diverse multidisciplinary group from across the world to address shared challenges in mental health research and to realise the potential of longitudinal qualitative data. Find out more
We are also delighted to be members of the African Population Cohort Consortium (APCC). Funders, led by the Wellcome Trust, have commissioned this Africa-led team to plan a network of large longitudinal population studies across Africa, to inform Africa’s specific health needs and to strengthen research leadership in Africa, focusing on climate and health, health across the lifespan, and universal health coverage. Find out more
Ethiopia Team Presents Qual-6 Findings at ICES
Young Lives Ethiopia recently participated in the 22nd International Conference on Ethiopian Studies (ICES22), at Hawassa University. Under the theme 'Youth Transitions to Adulthood Through a Period of Multiple Crises', the team delivered nine presentations over two days, sharing findings from its ongoing Qualitative Longitudinal Research (Qual-6). This was a fantastic opportunity to discuss emerging insights and policy implications across the academic community in Ethiopia, which will help to shape our forthcoming Analytical report and related Policy Brief.
Sharing Young Lives Evidence on the Global Stage
In August, members of Young Lives Peru (Ninos del Milenio) attended The Peruvian Economics Association Annual Congress in Arequipa, Peru. Team members, including Oxford's Alan Sanchez and Amanda Woodman Deza, presented papers to policy-makers and academics, on mental health and human capital.
Researcher Assistant Gerry McQuade presented at the 40th Meeting of the European Economic Association in Bordeaux, France. His paper "Grandmothers and Grandsons: Multigenerational effects of drought exposure in Peru" uses a unique cohort study of Peruvian children and their families to examine how drought exposure has a persistent negative impact on the health stock of daughter's and grandchildren.
At the beginning of October, Researcher Assistant Tanima Tanima presented her paper, co-authored with Doug Scott (University of York), “Gender Differences in Preferences for Job Characteristics: Evidence from Ethiopia, India and Peru” at the 22nd International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Hawassa, Ethiopia.
Alan Sanchez has been invited to present at the 2025 Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association (LACEA) Annual Meeting, in Recife, Brazil. Alan will be discussing the long-term impact of an educational reform in Peru.
New publications
Collecting Hair Samples to Measure Cortisol in the Young Lives Study: Protocols and Fieldwork Results
This technical note outlines Young Lives’ process of hair sample collection, makes recommendations for future rounds and provides other researchers with valuable information to produce large-scale cortisol data in international cohort studies.
Read this technical note along side our latest blog (see above).
Gender inequality in successful completion of higher education: evidence from a longitudinal study in India
This paper uses findings from Young Lives longitudinal study in India to explore gender differentials in completion of higher education (HE) among 26 year olds.
Proceedings of the 15th Anniversary Workshop of the Children, Youth and Women – Research and Practice Forum
Proceedings of the 15th Anniversary Workshop of the Children, Youth and Women - Research and Practice Forum (CYW-RPF), held in February 2025 in Addis Ababa.
This commemorative volume compiles 14 research papers presented at the anniversary workshop under the overarching theme of “Protection and Empowerment of Children, Youth and Women.”
Team News
Research award celebrations!
Congratulations to Young Lives Peru's (Niños del Milenio's) research team, Vanessa Rojas Arangoitia and Antonio Campos Flores, who have been awarded the 31st Annual CIES 2025 – II Research prize, organised by the Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES) with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA in Peru).
Their winning project 'Trajectories under Tension: Schooling, pregnancy and early cohabitation in Peruvian adolescent girls. Evidence from the longitudinal mixed study Niños del Milenio in Perú' will provide valuable evidence to strengthen the design of public policies aimed at adolescent girls in Peru.
Onwards and upwards!
We recently said a fond farewell to two of our wonderful Research Assistants, Juliana Quigua Chinchilla and Amanda Woodman Deza. Juliana will start her PhD in Economics at UCL, while Amanda will be pursuing her PhD at the IFO Centre for the Economics of Innovation and Digital Transformation, LMU, Munich.
We wish them both the best of luck and look forward to seeing them again soon.
If you have any questions or comments about this newsletter, please contact Young Lives Acting Head of Communications, Penny Rudling at penny.rudling@qeh.ox.ac.uk
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