Social Connectedness
The relationship between friendship, self-awareness and mental health
WHAT, WHY AND HOW?
We are interested in understanding the relationship between peer groups and how people think about themselves. Anyone who is between 16 and 18 years old can participate in this study.
Negative feelings become more common during adolescence. Young people’s relationships with other young people might play a role in their feelings about themselves. This research aims to understand how young people think about themselves, and how this might be related to their friendship group. This is important for understanding some negative feelings.
Young people taking part were asked to complete a range of fun decision-making computer tasks and questionnaires about their everyday life, feelings and their friends and peers around them. They were also asked to provide some demographic details about themselves. Testing took place in a quiet room, either in schools or in our laboratory in Cambridge, UK. The entire sessions took about 60 minutes and participants were paid £10 for their time.
Information Sheets and Consent Forms
Eligible participants were asked to provide informed consent prior to taking part. These can be viewed via the links below.
The participant information sheet can be found here.
The participant consent form can be found here.
We asked that anyone who wanted to take part informed their parents/carers about this study (more information for parents/carers here): Information for parents/carers
Mental Health support providers
Mental Health charity that promotes positive wellbeing across the UK and campaign against stigma & discrimination faced by so many people experiencing mental Health challenges.
YoungMinds is the UK's leading charity championing the wellbeing and mental health of children and young people. YoungMinds creates change so that children and young people can cope with life's adversities, find help when needed, and succeed in life.
Being a Samaritan means being there for people who need someone to listen. They give people ways to cope and the skills to be there for others. They encourage, promote and celebrate those moments of connection between people that can save lives.
If you are having a mental health crisis and in the UK, please call 111 and press option 2 for the First Response Service – a 24-hour service for people in mental health crisis.
How is the personal data managed?
All students read the information sheet and completed a consent form immediately before starting the study. It was made clear that the study was entirely voluntary and that, even having given consent, they were free to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason. We asked participants to inform their parents about the study. The parent could contact the researcher if they had any questions or concerns about the study.
General information about how the University uses personal information can be found here:
https://www.information-compliance.admin.cam.ac.uk/data-protection/research-participant-data.
All information collected is kept strictly confidential and subject to GDPR. All data is identified only by a code, with personal details stored in a secure password protected computer with access only by the immediate research team. Results will be presented at conferences and written up in journals. The data collected during the course of the project might be used for additional or subsequent research, including made available online for open science practices (with restrictions on personal data), but it will remain anonymous.