Research project
Project CREATE - Creating Research Ecologies to Advance Transdisciplinary lEarning: Arts-based programs and the study of adolescent loneliness
- Start date: 1 January 2023
- End date: 31 October 2025
- Funder: UKRI
- Primary investigator: Professor Paul Cooke
- Co-investigators: Dr Siobhan Hugh-Jones (Faculty of Medicine and Health - School of Psychology)
- External co-investigators: Mrs Anna Mankee - Williams, Professor Nicola Shaughnessy, Professor Kamaldeep Bhui, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Dr Emma Williams, Dr Sylvan Baker, Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou, Dr Ruth Herbert
Value
£1,249,995.07
Partners and collaborators
Falmouth University, University of Kent, University of Oxford, King's College London, University of Surrey, Royal Central Sch of Speech and Drama, University College London
Description
Arts-based mental health research, using creative practices like music, theatre, dance, drawing, poetry is enjoyed by many young people and can bring new insights and understanding about adolescent mental health in ways that traditional, often adult-led, research methods cannot. There is untapped potential to improve understanding of mental health if we could bring arts-approaches together with science and youth perspectives. However, this potential is held back by many research barriers.
Scientists can find it hard to understand the processes and outcomes of arts-based research, meaning art-science collaborations face challenges. Youth, scientists and artists also have different vocabularies and research values. We are also without a shared view, across youth, scientists and artists, on how to interpret the meaning of the art produced by young people about their mental health.
An understanding of exactly how and why arts-based approaches can be helpful to youth mental health is also lacking. Finally, arts researchers and youth can find the use of standardised measures of mental health, which are popular in science, difficult. Project CREATE will address each barrier by bringing youth, scientists and arts researchers together.
Publications and outputs
https://create.leeds.ac.uk/blog/
Upcoming webinars to disseminate project learnings:
20th May 2025 "Do you mean what I mean?" - Avoid misunderstandings in youth mental health research https://www.tickettailor.com/events/projectcreate1/1659126
10th June 2025 “Not so alone” - Listening to youth voices in mental health research - https://www.tickettailor.com/events/projectcreate1/1684611