We’re running a new study exploring how young people use AI chatbots like ChatGPT for mental health support. If you’re aged 16-25, live in the UK, and have used AI chatbots for mental health, we’d love to hear from you!! @oxchildpsych.bsky.social @emmasoneson.bsky.social
👉 lnkd.in/eQSRzyej
A fascinating project + you'd be hard pressed to find a better supervisory team than this one!
Come join our team @oxchildpsych.bsky.social! 🌻
⏰Post-doctoral #qualitative job alert! (closes 14/9/25).
@uclpsychiatry.bsky.social is recruiting for a #Qualitative Post‑Doctoral Research Associate to join our #suicide & #selfharm research team on a @nihr.bsky.social grant investigating acceptability of close obs www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
PAID OPPORTUNITY:
🏠 I'm looking to speak with some #homeschooling families (parents & carers / children & young people) in the UK about a potential research project around mental health and wellbeing in this community.
Please share & get in touch (emma.soneson@psych.ox.ac.uk) for more details!
📢 Job opportunity! 📢
I am recruiting a 2-year postdoc to join me at @clscohorts.bsky.social to work on a SUPER exciting project on the quantitative study of intersectional inequalities in youth mental health across time and place!
See www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... for more info and how to apply!
It's fifth week in Oxford, which - naturally - means alpacas! Somerville JCR's welfare team organised the visit of these lovely guys, along with some sheep, goats, and other animals. We hope all our students got the chance to say hello!
Jan Royall (Principal, Somerville College) and Emma Soneson in front of Jan's new portrait by Tania Rivilis. Portrait portrays Jan in Pink jacket against pink background.
Very fortunate to have shared two years at @somervillecollege.bsky.social with the wonderful Jan Royall & adore her new (hot pink!) portrait from Tania Rivilis, revealed last week 🎀🌸💓
Thanks for your kind words Ola ☺️
Hadn't thought about the specific tie to girls being 'more willing' to report sx but that's a really interesting link.
With thanks to @simonrwhite.bsky.social & @minafazeloxford.bsky.social for another fun collab & to our fantastic summer intern Puneetha Goli for her important contributions!
Key takeaway?
Research-related concerns are common amongst adolescents & have implications for data accuracy and completeness.
Deliberate design & analysis that incorporates this complexity are needed to ensure we are accurately capturing the voices of all young people.
Graph shows a 5x3 panel of plots where rows represent the 5 concerns and columns represent the three measures of mental illness and adversity (L-R Short Child Maltreatment Questionnaire, RCADS-11, DAWBA eating disorder screening questions). The general trend shown is that those without concerns have score distributions quite separate (better mental health; less adversity) from those reporting concerns (regardless of whether they said the concern impacted their accuracy). This is particularly striking for the RCADS-11.
🗝️ MISSING DATA was more common amongst those who reported that their concerns affected their accuracy (aORs wrt those not reporting impacted accuracy = 1.53 - 3.38).
🗝️ Substantial VARIATIONS in SCORE distributions on measures of mental illness & adversity according to presence/absence of concerns.
🗝️ Concerns were MORE PREVALENT amongst gender diverse students (aOR wrt boys = 5.7), gender non-disclosing students (aOR = 4.4) & girls (aOR = 2.5) BUT gender diverse adolescents less likely to report that their concerns prevented them from answering accurately.
🗝️ Less variation by age/ethnicity.
Graph (Fig 1 here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1054139X25001107) shows proportion of students endorsing five different research related concerns, including concerns about parents, someone at home, and peers seeing their answers; a concern that the survey was not actually confidential; and a concern about how data would be used. Graph also shows whether students reported that their concern impacted the accuracy of their answers. Most common concern is about adults at school seeing answers (31.1%), followed by belief that survey was not actually confidential (21.4%). Approx. 30% of individuals with each concern between 21.9 & 28.7% reported that the concern impacted the accuracy of their answers.
🗝️ 46.0% (8,160/17,729) of students endorsed ≥1 concern related to privacy, confidentiality, and data use & 28.8% (5,300/17,729) ≥2.
🗝️ 29.2% (2,379/8,160) of those with concerns reported that their concern(s) prevented them from answering '100% accurately'.
Are adolescents sensitive about sensitive data?
In our new @oxwell.bsky.social publication, we explore students' concerns about taking part in research including sensitive topics such as mental health & maltreatment.
Headlines below, w/ substantial implications for research design & analysis ⬇️
Photo of Emma, Hinako, and Mina standing in front of the wisteria at Magdalen college.
Photo shows a crowd on their feet looking up to the Magdalen tower for the choir.
Went to my first May Morning at @magdalenoxford.bsky.social yesterday! It was a truly magical thing & I'm so grateful to Hinako for the invite 🌸🌷🌻🪻
New Paper! I'm truly excited to share @natematias.bsky.social and my new Policy Forum in Science published yesterday.
We evaluate science's ability to address technological harms, and offer recommendations for what could be done to improve on the status quo: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Vice-Chancellor Awards 2025
The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards are a university-wide celebration of our outstanding people. We’re pleased that members from the Department of Psychiatry have been shortlisted across four categories. Learn more about our nominees 👇
Photo shows a behind-the-scenes shot from the BBC South Today filming, with a desktop computer showing multiple camera angles. The largest angle is a closeup of Holly smiling.
Photo shows a behind-the-scenes shot from the BBC South Today filming, as a wide angle of Holly and host Tom sat on a rounded sofa posed to discuss the Director of Public Health Report.
Screenshot from a news article (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vn6821e6eo) that shows Emma smiling outdoors in Somerville College, and text including a quote from Emma bout the importance of inequalities in mental health.
It's been a busy 48 hours for our senior postdocs @drhollybear.bsky.social & @emmasoneson.bsky.social, who were invited by BBC South Today & Radio Oxford to talk about the latest Oxfordshire Director of Public Health Annual Report on Children & Young People's #mentalhealth.
Links below👇
Our brilliant JRF Dr Emma Soneson @emmasoneson.bsky.social was on the BBC last night discussing the mental health of Oxfordshire's children and young people: "When people think about Oxfordshire they think of this magnificent university town and forget about a lot of the inequalities."
A report by Oxfordshire County Council has found children living in poorer areas are more likely to experience mental health issues.
It drew on Oxwell Student Survey findings & our senior postdoc @emmasoneson.bsky.social spoke to the BBC about it.
Read the story 👇
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Addressing #inequalities across the county is essential for shifting the dial in children & young people's #mentalhealth.
Great to see this as a focus of the new Director of Public Health Annual Report for Oxfordshire. Lots of work to be done, but equally, lots to be hopeful about.
👏
New findings from @oxwell.bsky.social reinforce calls to shift to a more nuanced view of teens + tech.
Interesting read from colleagues @drhollybear.bsky.social, @minafazeloxford.bsky.social & @drskripka.bsky.social!
Lea presenting findings from her OxWell internship at a conference.
Great to see Lea Satala presenting her OxWell findings at the @nihr.bsky.social Undergraduate Internship Programme Celebration Event in London this morning!
Lea undertook an 8-wk internship with @oxchildpsych.bsky.social last summer & did some really impactful work around adolescent self-harm.
In the Department of Psychiatry, we're proud to have research teams working on a range of projects to understand more about the experiences and particular mental health needs of LGBT+ people. Read more 👇
tinyurl.com/3mtz3evw
#LGBTHistoryMonth @emmasoneson.bsky.social
L to R: CAP team members Holly Bear, Anne Stewart, and Hinako Irei smiling and holding copies of Anne's book
Caz, Joanna, and Anne speaking on a panel about their book
Panel of six authors and editor of the two books
So proud of our shining star Anne Stewart 🌟 (& CAP friends Caz Nahman and Joanna Adams), whose book - Overcoming Worries About Body Image and Eating - launched today at @brasenoseoxford.bsky.social 📚
Huge potential to make a huge difference for young people!
Struggling with that #mentalhealth #research fellowship application?
Apply for our 2025 Writing Retreat! It offers structured writing time & guidance from senior colleagues & panel members on how to write a good application & sell it to the funder. 👇
mentalhealthresearch.org.uk/writing-retr...
An image describing the function of the Atlas of Longitudinal Datasets featuring three screens with screenshots of the website featuring the text: One tool, endless possibilities. Explore thousands of datasets using a designated search engine. Use filters to narrow down your search to the datasets most relevant to your research questions. View datasets as part of a list or on a map. Compare the unique features of datasets. Save your search terms and results.
🖥️One tool. Endless possibilities!
The #AtlasLongitudinalDatasets allows you to do more than explore datasets from around the world. You can compare features, use a list or map view, narrow down with filters and save your searches. Check it out here: atlaslongitudinaldatasets.ac.uk
The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey has monitored the wellbeing of America’s high school students since 1991.
Since 2015, it’s been a vital source of data on LGBQ youth. In 2023, it provided the first ever nationally representative sample of transgender teens.
As of this morning, it’s gone.
Loved being part of this discussion! Have a listen to hear us chat about harnessing the power of today's young people, creating meaningful change in our communities, and my 'beef' with one of the most commonly-used phrases in our field... 👀
Thanks for having me, @gatescambridge.bsky.social!