Mental Health and Wellbeing: HeadStart Cohort, 2017-2021

<p></p> <p>This study contains data from a national evaluation of the HeadStart programme. The evaluation was commissioned by the National Lottery Community Fund (TNLCF) and conducted by the Anna Freud Centre and the University of Manchester.</p><p>HeadStart was a six-year, £67.4 million programme set up by TNCLF, which started in 2016 and aimed to explore and test new ways to improve the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people aged 10–16 and prevent serious mental health issues from developing. The six HeadStart partnerships were based in Blackpool, Cornwall, Hull, Kent, Newham and Wolverhampton. As a test and learn programme, the HeadStart programme ended in July 2022, with many of the approaches having been sustained and embedded locally. The national evaluation of HeadStart was completed in May 2023.</p><p>During each year of HeadStart, young people from schools involved in the HeadStart programme completed survey questionnaires. The survey contained the following measures: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale; Student Resilience Survey; Self-regulation subscale of TEIQue-ASF; and a 4-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale. Young carer status was measured using the following question: "Young carers are children and young people under 18 who provide regular or ongoing care to a family member who has an illness, disability, mental health condition or drug/alcohol dependency."</p><p>The survey collection in 2021 also included questions about gender and sexual identity (only completed by Year 11s), as well as information on adolescents' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown (completed by Year 9s and 11s).</p><p>Data were collected from two samples. Sample 1 comprised all children and young people in HeadStart settings who were in the Year 7 age group in 2016/17. These children were followed up annually in Years 8, 9, 10 and 11. This allowed longitudinal analysis based on the same children over time to examine whether there are any changes in outcomes for this group over time. Sample 2 comprised repeated snapshot measurements year-on-year of pupils in Year 9. These data allow examination of change in the same age group over time, which can provide information on co-occurring developmental changes.</p><p class="x_x_x_x_x_x_MsoNormal"> </p><p>Further information can be found in the documentation and on the TNLCF <a title="HeadStart" href="https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/strategic-investments/headstart#section-1">HeadStart</a> and <a href="https://www.annafreud.org/research/past-research-projects/the-headstart-learning-programme/">Anna Freud</a> webpages.</p><p><span style="font-weight: bold;">Acknowledgement</span></p><p>The following disclaimer/acknowledgement should be added to all publications based on these data:  </p><p>"The data used in this study was collected as part of the HeadStart learning programme and supported by funding from The National Lottery Community Fund. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors, and it does not reflect the views of The National Lottery Community Fund."</p>

本研究数据集源自针对HeadStart项目的全国性评估。该评估由英国国家彩票社区基金（The National Lottery Community Fund，缩写TNLCF）委托，安娜·弗洛伊德中心（Anna Freud Centre）与曼彻斯特大学（University of Manchester）共同执行。

HeadStart是TNLCF于2016年启动的一项为期六年、总投入达6740万英镑的项目，旨在探索并验证改善10至16岁儿童与青少年心理健康与福祉的全新路径，同时预防严重心理健康问题的发生。该项目共设有6个合作站点，分别位于布莱克浦、康沃尔、赫尔、肯特、纽汉以及伍尔弗汉普顿。作为一项试错学习型项目，HeadStart于2022年7月正式结束，其诸多实践方法已在当地得以延续并落地。HeadStart的全国性评估工作于2023年5月完成。

在HeadStart项目实施的每一年，参与该项目的学校的青少年均需填写调查问卷。问卷包含以下评估工具：长处与困难问卷（Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire）、简版沃里克-爱丁堡心理健康量表（Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale）、学生韧性问卷（Student Resilience Survey）、TEIQue-ASF自我调节分量表，以及4条目版感知压力量表（Perceived Stress Scale）。青少年照料者身份通过以下问题进行界定："青少年照料者指18岁以下定期或持续为患病、残障、存在心理健康问题或药物/酒精依赖的家庭成员提供照料的儿童与青少年。"

2021年的问卷收集还增设了关于性别与性身份认同的问题（仅由11年级学生填写），以及青少年在新冠疫情封控期间的相关经历问卷（由9年级和11年级学生填写）。

本研究的数据来自两个样本。样本1涵盖2016/17学年处于7年级的所有HeadStart项目覆盖范围内的儿童与青少年，并对这些学生在8、9、10、11年级进行了年度追踪。这一设计支持针对同一群体的纵向分析，以考察该群体的研究结果随时间推移是否发生变化。样本2为每年对9年级学生进行的重复横断面测量。此类数据可用于分析同一年龄群体随时间的变化情况，从而为同步发生的发展性变化提供研究依据。

更多详细信息可查阅相关文档，以及TNLCF的HeadStart官方网页与安娜·弗洛伊德中心的相关网页。

致谢

基于本数据集的所有学术出版物均需附上以下免责声明与致谢内容：

"本研究使用的数据源自HeadStart学习项目，由英国国家彩票社区基金提供资助。本研究内容仅代表作者个人观点，不代表英国国家彩票社区基金的立场。"