Why are young people struggling with body image and mental health difficulties?
Help us find answers
IMAGINE is a secondary school-based study led by researchers at University College London and funded by The Wellcome Trust.
What’s the IMAGINE study?
IMAGINE will track 5,000 London secondary-school students over four years
IMAGINE is a longitudinal study taking place across secondary schools in Greater London. At the start of the study, we will recruit around 5,000 young people who are in year 7 and year 8 of secondary school and we will follow them up annually for four years.
Every year, we will collect information on young people’s experiences inside and outside school. We will also ask questions about the schools and their policies to head teachers.
What's our goal?
We want to develop new ways to support young people's wellbeing
More and more young people are struggling with their body image and mental health difficulties.
We will use the information gathered from the IMAGINE study to work with schools so they can better support young people's mental health
What information will we collect?
We will collect data on young people's mental health, relationships, and school experiences
We will visit schools once a year. Young people will complete questionnaires covering various aspects of their lives, such as their mental health, relationships, social media use, and experiences in school.
This will take place during regular school hours and their teachers as well as UCL researchers will be present the whole time.
How was the questionnaire developed?
We have developed this survey with the help of young people. In collaboration with the National Children’s Bureau and Beat, the eating disorder charity, we have consulted young people to ensure that our survey covers areas that matter to them. We have only included questionnaires that have either been developed with young people or that have previously been used in studies aimed at this age group. To ensure that our questions are age appropriate and easy to understand, we have also piloted the questionnaire with young people.