City Bridge Foundation longitudinal study
City Bridge Foundation longitudinal study
Our longitudinal study on the long-term effects of individual counselling aims to support the case for early intervention in mental health.
We're conducting a new study on the effects and cost-benefits of children and young people aged 4–18 across London receiving individual counselling at Place2Be. The City of London Corporation's charitable funder, City Bridge Foundation, and the Robinson family are generously funding the study. A member of the Robinson family is one of Place2Be's Trustees.
What is a longitudinal study?
A longitudinal study is where researchers follow up with a group of people and see what changes occur over a set period of time.
On this page, you'll find information on:
Our objectives
1. Mental health and educational outcomes of children and young people who access Place2Be
Our first objective is to describe the mental health and educational outcomes of children and young people who access Place2Be in primary and secondary schools in London, compared to similar children from existing studies.
This will involve looking at the following relating to children and young people who receive counselling from Place2Be while they have counselling and two years after:
- describing what happens to their mental health
- seeing how much this mental health improvement is sustained over time
- identifying the factors that are associated with this improvement
- looking at what happens to their academic attainment and progress
- examining how longer-term outcomes, such as their academic attainment and attendance, vary in relation to mental health
- exploring if these outcomes are different compared to children with similar mental health and socio-demographics.
2. Initial mental health difficulties
Our second objective is to see whether any differences in outcomes are associated with the nature of the initial mental health difficulties and characteristics of children and young people.
3. Cost-benefits of access to individual counselling
Our third objective is to explore the cost-benefits of access to individual counselling over time. To do this, we will work with Pro-Bono Economics to assess the cost of early mental health intervention against the benefits for the individual and wider society from reduced mental health difficulties.
How we'll measure mental health
We will analyse children and young people's mental health through the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The SDQ will be completed by:
- parents or carers
- teachers
- the young person if they are over 11 years old.
Our funders
The City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, City Bridge Foundation, is generously funding this four-year research programme. City Bridge Foundation grants over £30m annually towards charity projects that benefit Greater London.