Exploring adolescent wellbeing through data
The Data Visualisation Observatory (DVO) is bringing to life a groundbreaking study into the wellbeing of adolescents.
Researchers from The University of Manchester have been working with Anna Freud and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority for several years on surveying pupils in secondary schools across Greater Manchester (GM) about their wellbeing as part of the #BeeWell project.
The driver for the initiative is that despite the major role that schools play in supporting young people’s mental health, many do not assess the mental health and wellbeing of their students.
Of those that do, few use validated methods across whole cohorts, and without regular assessment there is no way for schools to know whether their interventions are making a positive difference for students, or indeed to understand the profile of strengths and needs of different subgroups (e.g. those eligible for free school meals).
DVO visit
As part of the #BeeWell Young Researchers Programme that forms part of the overall project, Year 10 students involved in #BeeWell are given the opportunity to take part in a fieldwork visit to the DVO where they can see exactly how the project data can be visualised across a ‘digital twin’ map of Greater Manchester.
As #BeeWell research lead Professor Neil Humphrey, from the Manchester Institute of Education, explained: "We collate all the data from the surveys and return it to schools via an interactive online dashboard which then allows them to filter their data by a range of characteristics and helps identify those groups in greatest need of support. And because we are collating the information into online dashboards, the DVO is an absolutely perfect way for us to package up the data and layer it onto a map of Greater Manchester."
"When the students come into the DVO they find it thrilling to see how the data can be visualised in such an exciting and immersive way, and it’s unlike anything they have ever experienced before. It really captures their imagination and is an experience they never forget. I think it also definitely inspires them to think about careers in data science and/or mental health too. This spring we also had teachers come along for the first time and they were equally blown away. There really is something special about being stood in the DVO with all the data around you. This is a fantastic resource for AMBS and the University of Manchester."
Future plans
Professor Humphrey said the plan was for #BeeWell to be up and running in every part of the country by 2030.
"As we speak there is major lobbying going on with the new government to see if it can roll out annual monitoring of young people’s wellbeing across the country as part of a national system where data are routinely gathered. We are getting good traction from initial conversations because what we can show is that schools are already acting on the results of the survey, which is absolutely key, and that we have proof of concept. This is also shown by the fact that schools in GM originally signed up for three years to the programme and have just signed up for another four years, which is a fantastic endorsement of the value they get from taking part. I have no doubt that as the programme expands we will increasingly use the DVO too."