Assessing young people’s experiences of mental illness stigma and discrimination.

The key goal for this project is the development and validation of an assessment tool (or tools, as appropriate) for measuring young people’s experiences of mental illness stigma and discrimination. By mid-adolescence, many young people live with mental health challenges reflecting emotional (e.g., depression, anxiety, self-harm) or neurodevelopmental (e.g., ADHD, Autism spectrum) disorders. These challenges are often accompanied by the experience of stigmatising and discriminatory attitudes and behaviours from others. However, no measure is currently available which is appropriate for adolescent audiences; this studentship will therefore develop and validate a theoretically informed and psychometrically robust tool(s).

It is expected that the successful candidate will use a participatory research methods (PRM) approach to guide a mixed-methods project developing and validating the measure(s). The MHF’s Youth Collective, young people with lived experience of mental health difficulties, will be meaningful partners in the project. That is, young people will help to shape the direction and nature of the research, to collect data, interpret results, and will co-produce appropriate ways of disseminating the conclusions to their peers.