CO-PRODUCING A FRAMEWORK OF GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR ENGAGING REPRESENTATIVE AND DIVERSE COHORTS OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN MENTAL HEALTH

青春期是包括大脑在内的整个身体生长和发育的关键时期，也是许多心理健康问题（如焦虑和抑郁）开始出现的时期。我们已经非常了解环境如何影响心理健康，但我们需要更多地了解我们在世界上经历的事情如何对我们的思想、大脑和身体的生物学产生物理变化。研究人员可以通过研究，例如血液、唾液或脑部扫描（拍摄大脑照片）来做到这一点。 我们要解决的需求：迄今为止进行的青少年心理健康生物学研究需要改进，因为许多年轻人没有参与或退出此类研究，特别是来自弱势群体或少数群体的年轻人，这意味着结果并不代表英国的所有年轻人。发生这种情况的原因有很多，包括成年人（父母、看护者、教师、卫生专业人员）有时认为年轻人不感兴趣或害怕参与。此外，即使邀请年轻人就研究提供建议，一旦已经做出了很多决定，这种情况就太晚了。我们将做什么：这个为期两年的项目由来自英国三个不同地点（伦敦、伯明翰和布拉德福德）的研究人员和年轻人共同领导，这些地点在人口种族、背景和地理位置方面非常多样化。每个地点都有一群专门为研究人员提供建议的年轻人，我们已经与他们合作多年。我们将共同开发一个名为“指导原则框架”的工具，该文件告诉有兴趣研究年轻人生物学和心理健康的研究人员，年轻人更喜欢如何接触研究，什么会让他们有兴趣继续参与，他们希望在研究团队中扮演什么角色，以及他们希望从参与中看到什么好处。我们还将询问家长和老师的观点，因为他们经常为 18 岁以下的年轻人做决定。我们将如何让年轻人参与：在项目的每个阶段，年轻人将成为共同领导者、研究人员和积极参与者。青年专家团体的代表将共同管理该项目，组建青年专家工作组（YEWG），并担任项目管理小组的联合主席和成员，该小组负责制定有关该项目的关键决策。该项目的任务（工作包，WP）：年轻人将与研究人员共同领导工作包。首先，我们将看看当研究人员试图收集年轻人的生物数据时，什么有效，什么无效（范围界定审查，WP1）。我们在 WP1 中发现的内容将有助于通过小组讨论（“焦点小组”）（WP2）了解年轻人、家长和教师对心理健康生物学研究的看法。研究结果将在小型在线研讨会上与年轻人专家进行讨论，他们将为框架初稿（WP3）制定内容和建议。然后，草案将发送给更多的年轻人、家长、教师、研究资助者和研究人员，通过在线会议和电子邮件通信征求他们的意见和意见，以形成框架的最终版本（WP4）。最后，我们将让研究人员、利益相关者（对项目感兴趣的人）和公众了解该框架，并确保研究人员在项目期间及之后使用该框架。结果：该框架将成为一个公开可用的工具，提供有关如何进行更好、更具包容性的研究的指南，以了解思想、大脑和身体的生物学如何与环境相互作用，从而影响青春期的心理健康。

Adolescence is a crucial time when the whole body, including the brain, is growing and developing, and when many mental health problems, like anxiety and depression, start. We already know quite a lot about how the environment can affect mental health, but we need to find out more about how the things we experience in the world can make physical changes to the biology of our mind, brain and body. Researchers can do this by studying, for example blood, saliva or brain scans (taking pictures of the brain).THE NEED WE WANT TO ADDRESS: Biological research in adolescent mental health conducted so far needs improving, as many young people do not participate or drop out of such studies, especially young people from disadvantaged or minority groups, which means that results do not represent all the young people in the UK. This happens for many reasons, including adults (parents, carers, teachers, health professionals) sometimes assuming young people are not interested or have fears about taking part. Also, even if young people are invited to advise on research studies, this happens too late, once a lot of decisions have been already made. WHAT WE WILL DO: This 2-year project is co-led by researchers and young people from 3 different UK locations (London, Birmingham and Bradford), which are very diverse in terms of population ethnicities, backgrounds and geography. Each location has groups of young people expert in advising researchers, and we have worked with them for many years. Together, we will develop a tool, called a "Framework of Guiding Principles", a document that tells researchers interested in studying biology and mental health in young people how young people prefer to be approached about research, what would make them interested to stay involved, what roles they would like to play in the research team, and what benefits they would like to see from taking part. We will also ask parents and teachers for their perspectives, as they often make decisions for young people under 18 years.HOW WE WILL INVOLVE YOUNG PEOPLE: During every stage of the project, young people will be co-leaders, researchers, and active participants. Representatives from the expert young people groups will co-manage the project by forming a Youth Expert Working Group (YEWG) and by being co-chair and members of the Project Management Group, which makes key decisions about the project. THE TASKS (WORK-PACKAGES, WP) OF THE PROJECT: Young people will co-lead the Work-packages with researchers. First, we will look at what works and does not work when researchers have tried to collect biological data in young people (Scoping review, WP1). What we find out in WP1 will help get the views of young people, parents and teachers on biological research in mental health, using small-group discussions ('focus groups') (WP2). The findings will be discussed with the expert young people in small online workshops, where they will develop the content and recommendations for a first draft of the Framework (WP3). The draft will then be sent round to more young people, parents, teachers, research funders and researchers, seeking their opinions and comments through online meetings and email correspondence to produce a final version of the Framework (WP4). Finally, we will let researchers, stakeholders (those interested in the project) and the public know about the Framework and ensure is used by researchers, during the project and beyond. THE OUTPUT: The Framework will be a publicly-available tool with guidelines on how to conduct better, more inclusive research to understand how the biology of the mind, the brain and the body interacts with the environment to influence mental health during adolescence.