Social influences around diet choice and eating behaviours in adolescents

青春期(10-24岁)是生物、心理和社会变革的关键时期。随着青少年获得更高水平的独立性和更强大的同伴网络，认知功能继续发展。与儿童和成年人相比，青少年对社会影响行为表现出更大的敏感性。这也是一个易受心理健康问题影响的时期，大多数精神健康障碍最早出现在24岁之前。社会变化，加上心理和生理发展，可以影响行为和生活方式的选择。例如，青春期与饮食质量下降有关，较差的饮食与精神健康障碍有关，以及发病率和更早死亡的增加。以前的研究已经使用流行病学方法来研究青春期社交暴露和饮食之间的关系。该项目采用心理学的实验方法，旨在了解青春期饮食相关行为的社会和认知方面，以及这与心理健康之间的联系。采用跨学科的方法，这将与使用现有数据的传统流行病学方法相结合，以了解现实世界中青少年周围的社会环境，以及这些社会暴露如何影响与饮食相关的行为和心理健康。将这些方法结合起来，可以更全面和全面地了解年轻人的社会和认知发展如何影响健康的生活方式决定以及与心理健康的双向互动。该项目将有助于为旨在保护年轻人身心健康的战略提供信息。

Adolescence (10-24 years) is a key period of biological, psychological and social change. Cognitive functioning continues to develop as adolescents gain greater levels of independence and stronger peer networks. Adolescents show greater susceptibility to social influence on behaviour, compared to children and adults. This is also a time of vulnerability to mental health problems, with most mental health disorders first emerging before the age of 24. Social changes, combined with psychological and biological development, can influence behaviour and lifestyle choices. For example, adolescence is associated with decreases in diet quality, with poorer diet being linked to mental health disorders, as well as increased morbidity and earlier mortality. Previous research has used epidemiological methods to examine the relationships between social exposure and diet in adolescence. Using a psychologically informed experimental approach, this project aims to understand the social and cognitive aspects of diet-related behaviours in adolescence and how this links to mental health. Undertaking an interdisciplinary approach, this will be combined with traditional epidemiological methods using existing data to understand the social environment surrounding adolescents in the real world and how these social exposures impact diet-related behaviour and mental health. Integrating these methods results in a more comprehensive and holistic understanding of how the social and cognitive development of young people can influence healthy lifestyle decisions and the bidirectional interaction with mental health. This project will add to work that helps to inform strategies aiming to protect the physical and mental health of young people.