ReviewBMJ open2024
Safeguarding in adolescent mental health research: navigating dilemmas and developing procedures.
Review in BMJ open, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Ensuring participant safety in research studies evaluating digital mental health interventions delivered remotely - insights from the PIPA trial of an online parenting intervention to prevent affective disorders in high-risk adolescents.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Trial
- How Lived Experience Advisory Groups Contribute to the Design and Conduct of Mental Health Research.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- School phone policies and their association with mental wellbeing, phone use, and social media use (SMART Schools): a cross-sectional observational study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2025Article
- Micro-narratives: A Scalable Method for Eliciting Stories of People's Lived Experience.Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. CHI ConferenceArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mental disorders are prevalent during adolescence. Self-harm and suicide are more common in adolescents with a probable mental disorder, with one in four reporting to have attempted self-harm. Research involving adolescents is, therefore, likely to include participants experiencing mental ill health, even if mental health is not the primary focus. Researchers should adopt procedures and principles that safeguard adolescent mental health in their research practice. Yet there are gaps between theory and practice of research with adolescents in relation to their mental health, and limited guidance is available.We discuss emerging safeguarding dilemmas and procedures in adolescent mental health research. Our experiences of safeguarding adolescent mental health are grounded in the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded SMART Schools Study. Drawing from this secondary school-based study, we focus on how our research team encountered and addressed a high prevalence of participants (aged 12-13 and 14-15 years) reporting thoughts and behaviours related to self-harm or suicide (24% of participants). This included reviewing our existing risk mitigation processes and consulting with several committees including young people with lived experiences of mental health.We present the SMART Schools study safeguarding approach for adolescent mental health. This encompasses key safeguarding principles, study procedures and relevant justifications. We address school and university roles and responsibilities, pupil understanding, and efficient, effective and secure communication pathways. We embed guidance throughout this article for researchers working with adolescents in the context of mental health. Lastly, we present five key recommendations to safeguard the mental health of adolescents participating in research, including (1) appointing a safeguarding lead within the research team; (2) codesigning a bespoke study safeguarding approach; (3) adopting a responsive approach to mental health safeguarding; (4) being transparent about the study mental health safeguarding approach and (5) report the implementation and outcomes of safeguarding approaches.Trial registration number ISRCTN77948572.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.