BrainWaves Living Well 2026 Speaker: IS ADOLESCENT ANXIETY RISING OR ARE WE MEASURING IT DIFFERENTLY?

As co-author of the 2025 Youth Futures Foundation report on “Understanding drivers of recent trends in young people’s mental health”, Matthias holds a unique perspective on whether young people’s anxiety is getting worse. He will join Professor Neil Humphrey from the BeeWell research project to discuss this topic, supplemented by more practical views on how to deal with the issue in schools from Hannah Woods at the Anna Freud Centre.

About Matthias

Dr Matthias Pierce is a Senior Research Fellow in the Division of Psychology and Mental Health at the University of Manchester.

He is a statistician whose central interest is on understanding how family shapes mental health and mental illness, but his research also covers children and young people’s mental health, prisoner mental health, the effect of the COVID pandemic, and substance misuse.