Adolescent mental health and wellbeing continue to be urgent global priorities, and at BrainWaves, we remain committed to our mission to equip young people with the understanding, skills, and support they need to navigate life with confidence and care.
Today, we’re excited to share an important milestone for our programme. Our new paper, The BrainWaves study of adolescent wellbeing and mental health: Methods development and pilot data, has been published in PLOS One and is now available online. This proof-of-concept publication reflects the first major step in building a population-level, long-term resource to better understand the complex landscape of adolescent mental health!
This pilot study, conducted with 15,444 students aged 16-19 across 36 schools and sixth form colleges in England and Scotland, offers one of the most detailed snapshots to date of young people’s wellbeing. The findings illustrate the intricate interplay between lifestyle, mental health, and flourishing, supporting and extending existing evidence about the factors that shape young people’s daily lives.
What the pilot reveals
- Differences between girls and boys emerged across several indicators. Higher levels of anxiety and depression were observed in females (8.3% and 6.8%) compared with males (5.1% and 5.2%).
- Lifestyle behaviours varied, with females more likely to report insufficient sleep, vaping, and alcohol use, while males more frequently reported sufficient sleep, higher levels of exercise, and recreational drug use.
- Digital habits diverged, too: females spent more time on social media, while males reported more gaming.
- Sleep and exercise were among the strongest predictors of flourishing, with sufficient sleep and regular physical activity both positively associated with wellbeing and lower levels of anxiety and depression.
These insights are already shaping the evidence-based resources we are developing with and for schools!
As Professor John Gallacher, BrainWaves Co-Director, explains:
“There is obviously much more work to do to get a more complete understanding of how various lifestyle factors interact with mental health and wellbeing. This requires population-level longitudinal data that maps the trajectory of mental health and wellbeing and their causes over time, which is what we want to do with BrainWaves.”
A collaborative effort with schools
This work is only possible because of the students, teachers, and schools who have given their time to this important project. Their contributions allow us to gather data at pace and scale and make it freely available to scientists worldwide, positioning BrainWaves as a global resource for adolescent wellbeing and mental health.
To everyone who has taken part so far: thank you.
Join the next phase of BrainWaves
We are now inviting schools to join the next cohort. If your school would like to take part and help expand this much-needed evidence base, you can register your interest here: Join the study
Support our mission
BrainWaves is funded through philanthropic support. If you believe in the importance of equipping young people with the knowledge and tools to live well, please consider making a donation. Your support enables us to continue this vital work, deepen our research, and develop free, evidence-based resources for schools across the UK and beyond.
