Reflections on the involvement of young minds and people with Lived Experience

 

Alongside myself, the RAPPORT team includes four lay researchers that have lived experience of depression and/or anxiety; this includes two individuals that have lived experience in a parental capacity. Given that some of the data included in the Millenium Cohort Study has been obtained from parents, we believe it is particularly important to hear things from their perspective too. There were some initial delays involving people with lived experience, which was outside of our control; however, during the week commencing 28 November 2022 we met with the lay researchers, as well as a diverse group of young people to collaborate on the project. 

 

The young people had an interest in research and were keen to hear about the project. We discussed machine learning and the aim of the project, which is to establish whether exercise causes improvements in young peoples’ mental health. We used the app Mentimeter to present the project, which allowed individuals in the group to feed back their thoughts anonymously in real time. This also allowed us to obtain the views of these individuals regarding why people would or wouldn’t want to engage in exercise. The group also helped us understand factors that could affect both whether a young person exercises, as well as their mood. The group enjoyed the session and reported that they felt included and that their input would make a real impact on the research project. We obtained some pearls of wisdom that will allow us to engage with the data in a meaningful way and, in turn, help us identify variables in the dataset that may influence the relationship between exercise and depression in young people. We look forward to reporting back to the young people how their input has influenced the analysis.

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