Topic description and stories

Understanding the implications of enabling children to grow into healthy, happy, educated and inquiring adults, in safety and free from adversity.

Teacher speaking with students

'Reductive' models of wellbeing education risk failing children, researchers warn

21 Jun 2022

An improved vision for wellbeing education should replace the over-simplistic approaches currently employed in many schools, such as happiness...

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Children playing

Pre-school play with friends lowers risk of mental health problems later

14 Jun 2022

Children who learn to play well with others at pre-school age tend to enjoy better mental health as they get older, new research shows. The findings...

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The psychiatrist who faced a dilemma but couldn’t turn his back on his people

23 May 2022

Children in West Africa with cognitive difficulties are going undiagnosed because the tests used to assess their mental health are based on Western...

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Boy using a smartphone

Scientists find that the impact of social media on wellbeing varies across adolescence

28 Mar 2022

Girls and boys might be more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media use at different times during their adolescence, say an international...

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Smiling boy with a football

One in three young people say they felt happier during lockdown

22 Feb 2022

One in three young people say their mental health and wellbeing improved during COVID-19 lockdown measures, with potential contributing factors...

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The Lost Words: a ‘spell book’ that closes the gap between childhood and nature

01 Jan 2022

The Lost Words is a book by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris that summons the magic of nature to help children find, love and protect the natural...

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A man sitting in front of a screen

Teenagers at greatest risk of self-harming could be identified almost a decade earlier

15 Jun 2021

Researchers have identified two subgroups of adolescents who self-harm and have shown that it is possible to predict those individuals at greatest...

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Children running

Physical activity may help to close the wealth gap in school attainment by improving self-control

20 May 2021

Guaranteeing every child the opportunity to participate in certain types of physical activity could support their academic attainment and help to...

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Year 8 students work with Cambridge researchers to help their peers learn about the census

13 May 2021

Year 8 students work with Cambridge researchers to help their peers learn about the census.

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Boy at sunset

Autism rates have increased and show differences in ethnic minorities and links to social disadvantage

29 Mar 2021

Around one in 57 (1.76%) children in the UK is on the autistic spectrum, significantly higher than previously reported, according to a study of more...

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Boy wearing face mask

Pandemic restrictions aggravating known triggers for self-harm and poor mental health among children and young people

10 Mar 2021

Experts have issued a stark warning about the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of children and young people.

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Children sitting on park bench

High insulin levels during childhood a risk for mental health problems later in life, study suggests

13 Jan 2021

Researchers have shown that the link between physical and mental illness is closer than previously thought. Certain changes in physical health, which...

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