How to coordinate Longitudinal Studies into Student Wellbeing
There is limited robust data on psychological wellbeing in university students. We don't know enough about what the rates of student mental health problems are, what are the risk and protective factors, or how to intervene to prevent, detect difficulties and provide help.
Longitudinal studies provide a starting point for building up this evidence base. The SMaRteN Network has funded academics, clinicians and students at the universities of Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Sheffield and York to help coordinate the running of longitudinal student cohorts across the university sector. The work has a number of objectives, including:
To provide guidance for universities looking to establish longitudinal studies through virtual 'Cohort Clinics'
To provide an open access Cohort Starter Kit that contains standardised study protocols, ethics proformas, and participant-facing documents
To establish agreement across the sector about procedures for collecting data including which standardised measures to use
To explore the opportunities for data-linkage & sharing across universities.
How can I get involved?
Toolkit: Guidance on outcome measurement
Developed upon a series of consensus group workshops, this toolkit helps researchers and institutions to select the most appropriate outcomes and measurement tools for their particular study. This downloadable PDF features a full report on how the the toolkit was developed and how it can be used to improve decion-making.
Set up your study
We want to make it easy for researchers to setup their own longitudinal studies so we have created a Cohort Starter Kit - a suite of study documents that are ready to be adapted to your institution for implementation. These documents are free to use and include a study protocol, ethics and data protection forms, participant information, and other useful setup material.
Receive guidance
We hosted regular drop-in Virtual Cohort Clinics to support those who wish to setup their own cohorts or are in the process of doing so.
There are currently no planned dates for upcoming Cohort Clinics so we encourage researchers who are thinking of setting up a study, or who would like to discuss their study, to contact us via the form to receive guidance.
Get in touch and get started
We are interested in hearing from anyone who is planning to run a longitudinal study at a university or is already running one. Complete the contact form to:
Receive guidance on setting up your study,
Get your free Cohort Starter Kit.
Partners
This work has been developed by a collaboration of institutions across the higher education sector.
The project is funded by the SMaRteN Student Mental Health Research Network, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
