We carry out research to explore the mental health difficulties and structural inequalities faced by young adults, and use this to influence national and institutional policies.
As part of a project partnership with the University of Edinburgh, we will collect data and research on the challenges that young people and students face, which can then be used to inform government and university/college policies on supporting student well-being – something that has been welcomed and that we are very passionate about delivering. We’ll also be considering comments and thoughts from our readers and contributors to ensure they help shape our output.
Main research aims:
- To find out about the state of young adult’s mental health and the main challenges they are facing at university/college and more broadly;
- To discover the extent to which the Fearlessly is helping them face/manage their challenges by therapeutically writing, sharing and reading mental health stories; and
- To encourage young adults to identify any gaps in support, services and policies, and to develop policy recommendations based on this research.
How are we doing this?
Fearlessly’s social media accounts are regularly updated with polls and questions for you to engage with – particularly under the hashtag #TellFearlessly. This is our way of keeping your ideas and needs at the forefront of our research. Everytime you engage with a poll or vote on our Twitter or Instagram accounts, you’re helping to shape the magazine and guide the direction of our research into mental health policy.
We also carry out more detailed work using surveys, focus groups and interviews. All of the findings will be compiled by our research team and presented in mid-year and end of year reports. Check out some of our findings and read the story behind the data on our research blog here.
What are our findings?
We published our first research report in December 2018, which is titled Fear of the Future?: A Research Report on the Mental Health of Young Female and Non-Binary Students in the UK. This report analyses and collates all of the research we conducted on mental health and student life during April-December 2018. You can download the report here