About
What is Developing Minds Digest?
Developing Minds Digest (DMD) is a website that has been developed collaboratively between researchers at the University of Oxford and members of the public. Our goal is to make youth mental health research more accessible to those it impacts most, including young people, parents, teachers, and clinicians. To do this, we have created this website where you will find a collection of posts that summarise recent research on youth mental health. By ‘youth’, we mean from birth up to 25 years old.
We cover research on a range of different topics, including:
Mental health disorders and symptoms, like depression and anxiety
Neurodiversity and neurodevelopmental disorders, like autism and dyslexia
Treatment options, like CAMHS and school-based support
Emotions, like anger and worry
Family and school life
Developmental milestones and transitions, like puberty and going to university
Everyday experiences, like friendships and social media
Challenges, like bullying and bereavement
Photo by Artem Kniaz on Unsplash
What does a research summary include?
Each research summary includes:
A short, snappy headline that captures the main focus of the research
A 250 word description of the research, including what was done and what was found
Clearly labelled implications for young people, parents, teachers or clinicians
A link to where the research was published or can be found, so you can read the full paper
A statement that discloses any use of AI in writing the summary
Badges that tell you:
If the research is open access (freely available to read) or paid access (cannot read without paying a fee)
Whether the study included public involvement or not
What type of research it is - for example, a journal article, a government briefing, a published report
Photo by Aedrian Salazar on Unsplash
Who created Developing Minds Digest?
DMD was created by three research psychologists from the University of Oxford.
Dr Nina Higson-Sweeney (Project Lead)
Nina is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, funded by the Wellcome Trust. Her work focuses on better understanding how young people experience different mental health disorders, like depression and OCD, and making sure that young people are actively involved in research that is about them.
Sakshi Rajesh (Research Assistant)
Sakshi is a DPhil (PhD) student at the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on understanding the loss of interest and pleasure in activities among young people, within the context of depression and social anxiety. In particular, she is interested in exploring thoughts and behaviours that may contribute to reduced positive feelings.
Dr Lucy Foulkes (Co-Applicant)
Lucy is an academic psychologist at the University of Oxford. She holds a Prudence Trust Research Fellowship and a NIHR Senior Research Fellowship. She has written two books: What Mental Illness Really Is (…and what it isn’t) and Coming Of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us, both published by Penguin Random House. Her work has been featured in national and international media outlets including The Guardian, The Times, New Scientist, BBC Radio 4, BBC Newsnight and The New York Times. She regularly shares research insights via Instagram (32k), where she has a reputation for delivering accessible, nuanced messages about adolescent mental health.
Dr Nina Higson-Sweeney
Sakshi Rajesh
Dr Lucy Foulkes
How was Developing Minds Digest created?
After conversations in Lucy’s research group about how time-consuming and difficult it can be to find and read mental health research, we applied for funding to collaboratively design a website where short, jargon-free summaries of recent research on youth mental health could be shared.
After receiving funding, Nina and Sakshi hosted five online workshops with parents, teachers, clinicians and researchers to understand what they would want this website to look like. During these workshops, we asked questions about content, design, functionality and credibility. We received written feedback on these topics, too.
We then created a website that included as much feedback as possible and invited our workshop attendees to share their honest thoughts. After making some further changes, we then published the website that you are looking at now!
We are now in the phase of testing the website to see who is visiting it, what our visitors are engaging with, and if we are helping to make youth mental health research more accessible to the public.
Who supported the development of Developing Minds Digest?
This work has been supported by the University of Oxford’s Public and Community Engagement (PCER) Fund.
We would also like to acknowledge the support of the Parent Carer Research Network, which is funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre and the Charlie Waller Trust, and the WISDOM Research Network, funded by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, in helping us to recruit to our workshops.
What process does a summary go through before showing up on Developing Minds Digest?
Before a new summary is uploaded to the website, it goes through the following process:
Submission: Any researcher who finds this website can submit a summary. If someone submits a summary, they must have been involved in the research they have written a summary for OR have permission from the researchers to write the summary. They will need to provide us with their contact details and a link to the research.
Quality checks: When we receive a summary, we first check the quality of the research. This involves us looking at the research itself (particularly the methods, ethical approval, and conclusions) to see if it seems appropriate to share. We also check whether the summary seems to accurately reflect the conclusions of the research or if it is overstating what was found.
Edits: If the research is appropriate, we will make edits to the summary to make sure it is as jargon-free and clear as possible. If we need to make a lot of edits, we might contact the person who submitted the summary to check they are happy with what we have changed.
Published: Once any edits are approved, the summary will be published on the website.
It is important to note that while we check the summary and the research it is based on, it is not an in-depth evaluation. We have quickly read some of the most important parts of the research, but we may not be an expert in that particular method or may not work in that specific area, so there may be errors or limitations that we miss. Because of this, we recommend that you read these summaries with a critical eye - we want you to question these findings, consider what they could be missing, and what else we need to know.