2: Friendships and Mental Health: Insights from the OxWell Student Survey

Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH)

DOI: 10.13056/acamh.24916
In this ‘Insights from the OxWell Student Survey‘ episode, Tanya Manchanda comments on the friendship findings from the OxWell survey, including an insight into the impact of friendships on mental health outcomes and friendship interventions for young people.
The ‘Insights from the OxWell Student Survey‘ series is a new mini-in conversation series that will explore the OxWell study and the impact of its findings for parents, teachers, policymakers and mental health professionals.
Discussion points include:

• What are friendships interventions and how effective are they?
• Definition of authentic social groups.
• The suitability of friendship interventions for different types of mental health issues.
• How to measure the quality of friendships.
• Differences in gender and age groups in help-seeking behaviours.
• Future plans for researching friendships and friendships interventions in the next OxWell wave.

OxWell is a large-scale student survey designed to measure the wellbeing of children and young people. It looks at mental wellbeing, anxiety, indicators of vulnerability such as bullying and loneliness, school experience, access to services, safety online and many more areas. It is a joint effort between schools, young people, the NHS, local authorities and the OxWell research team at the University of Oxford’s Department of Psychiatry.