This week 22 Emanuel pupils from Year 8 & 9 took part in a research study that is being conducted by the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London and is funded by the Wellcome Trust.
This PhD research project is being led by Dr Priya Rajyaguru and aims to increase our understanding of how and why some young people develop mental health problems.
This study has been approved by the UCL Research Ethics Committee and aims at understanding how different styles of thinking in children and adolescents might be associated with mental health.
Mental health problems like anxiety and depression are known to be associated with certain styles of thinkingmin adults.
However, we don’t understand this very well in young people. We do know that adolescence is a time period marked by multiple changes in the brain, including the development of higher-level cognitive skills required for successful adult life. We are interested in how these cognitive skills develop and the way they might be associated with certain styles of thinking like rumination.
This is an important step for understanding why some types of thinking might be associated with mental health problems in young people.
