A Mental Health Pandemic? Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Young People's Mental Health.

Background: Research indicates that young people have been a particularly vulnerable group when it comes to negative mental health outcomes following COVID-19, with some authors warning of a 'mental health pandemic'.

Materials And Method: Using a survey approach, this study explored the effects of lockdowns on the mental health of 1995 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland. Respondents completed the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) along with closed- and open-ended questions about COVID-19.

Comparing the effectiveness of two reciprocal reading comprehension interventions for primary school pupils in disadvantaged schools.

Background: Effective reading comprehension teaching is an aspiration of education systems across the world. Teaching incorporating reciprocal reading theory and evidence is an internationally popular approach for improving comprehension.

Aims: This paper uses two large cluster randomized controlled trials of similar reciprocal reading interventions implemented in different ways to compare their effectiveness.

Exploring the association between mental wellbeing, health-related quality of life, family affluence and food choice in adolescents.

Young people choose energy-dense, nutrient-poor diets, yet understanding of potential determinants is limited. Associations between food choices, mental wellbeing, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and family affluence were explored to identify targets for intervention to promote dietary health and wellbeing in young people. Adolescents were recruited via post-primary schools in the UK and surveyed at two time-points when aged 13-14 years and 15-16 years.

(Re)examining the Relationship Between Children's Subjective Wellbeing and Their Perceptions of Participation Rights.

In recent years wellbeing has been linked increasingly with children's rights, often characterised as central to their realisation. Indeed it has been suggested that the two concepts are so intertwined that their pairing has become something of a mantra in the literature on childhood. This paper seeks to explore the nature of the relationship between wellbeing and participation rights, using a recently developed 'rights-based' measure of children's participation in school and community, the Children's Participation Rights Questionnaire (CPRQ), and an established measure of subjective wellbeing - KIDSCREEN-10.

The inclusion of open-ended questions on quantitative surveys of children: Dealing with unanticipated responses relating to child abuse and neglect.

Web surveys have been shown to be a viable, and relatively inexpensive, method of data collection with children. For this reason, the Kids' Life and Times (KLT) was developed as an annual online survey of 10 and 11 year old children. Each year, approximately 4,000 children participate in the survey.

Psychometric properties of the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) in Northern Ireland.

Background: The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) is a relatively new measure and to date has been validated in student samples in England and Scotland, and in population samples in Scotland. No data exist on the psychometric properties of the WEMWBS when used within a general population in Northern Ireland, a region that might be expected to differ in health and well-being given its troubled history.

Aims: This paper represents the first attempt to assess mental well-being in Northern Ireland using this new questionnaire.

Kids' Life and Times: using an Internet survey to measure children's health-related quality of life.

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of an Internet version of a children and young person's quality of life measure originally designed as a paper questionnaire.

Methods: Participants were 3,440 children aged 10 and 11 years in Northern Ireland who completed the KIDSCREEN-27 online as part of a general attitudinal survey. The questionnaire was animated using cartoon characters that are familiar to most children and the questions appeared on screen and were read aloud by actors.

Civil conflict in Northern Ireland and the prevalence of psychiatric disturbance across the United Kingdom: a population study using the British household panel survey and the Northern Ireland household panel survey.

Background: To date, no large-scale cross-comparative study of psychiatric morbidity in the United Kingdom has been carried out until recently when the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey (NIHPS) included the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) in 2001. The GHQ-12 has been included in the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) since 1991 for England and since 1999 for both Scotland and Wales. The purpose of this article is to compare rates of psychiatric morbidity across the United Kingdom, given that one region in particular, Northern Ireland, has experienced political conflict and civil strife for more than 35 years.