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都在生长发育的关键时期，也是焦虑和抑郁等许多心理健康问题开始出现的时候。关于环境如何影响心理健康，我们已经知道了相当多，但我们还需要更多地了解我们在世界上经历的事情如何对我们的头脑、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血液、唾液或脑扫描(拍摄大脑照片)来做到这一点。我们想要解决的需求：到目前为止，在青少年心理健康方面进行的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，这意味着结果并不能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、照顾者、教师、卫生专业人员)有时会假设年轻人对参与其中不感兴趣或害怕。此外，即使年轻人被邀请为研究研究提供建议，但一旦做出了许多决定，这就太晚了。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，这三个地点的人口种族、背景和地理环境非常不同。每个地点都有一群年轻人专家为研究人员提供建议，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，这份文件告诉对研究年轻人的生物学和心理健康感兴趣的研究人员，年轻人如何更愿意被接触到研究，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。我们还将征求家长和老师的意见，因为他们经常为18岁以下的年轻人做决定。我们将让年轻人参与进来：在项目的每个阶段，年轻人都将是共同的领导者、研究人员和积极的参与者。来自青年专家团体的代表将通过成立青年专家工作组(YEWG)和担任项目管理小组的联合主席和成员来共同管理该项目，项目管理小组负责就该项目做出关键决策。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，哪些有效，哪些无效(范围审查，WP1)。我们在WP1中的发现将有助于通过小组讨论(焦点小组)获得年轻人、家长和教师对心理健康生物学研究的看法(WP2)。调查结果将在小型在线研讨会上与专家青年讨论，他们将在那里制定框架初稿(WP3)的内容和建议。草案随后将分发给更多的年轻人、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，以产生框架的最终版本(WP4)。最后，我们将让研究人员、利益相关者(那些对该项目感兴趣的人)和公众了解该框架，并确保研究人员在项目期间和以后使用该框架。成果：该框架将成为一个公开可用的工具，指导如何进行更好、更具包容性的研究，以了解大脑、大脑和身体的生物学如何与环境相互作用，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.