MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit

SOCITS: A SOCial sITuational Systems approach to measuring and modelling influences on adolescent mental health

The SOCITS project will create a new method for researchers, counsellors, teachers, and young people to do research about adolescent mental health. Looking at SOCial, sITuational Systems is what we call the SOCITS approach. SOCITS will help to understand the reasons for things like loneliness, stress and poor mental health. 

SOCITS will also change the way we think about improving mental health, by giving us better information and telling us more about the specific situations and interactions in young people’s lives that affect mental health. So, does a school need more counsellors, or safer gym classes? Traditional surveys don’t help us answer these sort of questions. SOCITS can give us better answers and tell us more about the specific situations and interactions in young people’s lives that affect mental health.   

The SOCITS study will involve developing health surveys that are tailored to each individual school. Rather than using generic loneliness or stress questionnaires, SOCITS will ask about the places and social situations in and around the school, and study how these situations affect mood and feelings. SOCITS will involve research interviews with young people about their school; workshops for young people, teachers and researchers; and school surveys, as well as workshops or webinars on how to use the SOCITS method for your own research.