The period of ERC funding for the REACH study is complete. The work performed is as follows:
(1) With input and advice from a Young Persons Advisory Group, we secured full ethical approvals for REACH.
(2) We successfully engaged and recruited 12 schools.
(3) We successfully piloted all aspects of the study in 2 schools. In our pilot, we implemented our procedures for recruiting pupils and for completing our in-class questionnaire on tablet computers and, with a sub-sample, face to face interviews and tasks. On the basis of our pilot, we further refined the procedures for the study.
(4) We completed baseline (Time 1, T1) in-class questionnaires in all 12 of our schools with a total of 4,353 pupils (88% of 4,945 eligible). This exceeds our initial target (around 3,000) substantially. This is because of higher than expected participation rates and larger than expected numbers of eligible pupils per school. In addition, we completed interviews and tasks with 803 pupils from our 12 schools. This exceeds our initial target (around 600).
(5) We completed at one year (Time 2, T2) follow up in-class questionnaires with 3,749 pupils (86% of 4,353 in our baseline (Time 1) cohorts) from all 12 of our schools. This exceeds our initial target for follow up at T2 (n, 2,484).
(6) We completed at two years (Time 3, T3) follow up in-class questionnaires with 3,025 pupils (81% of 3,749 so far followed) from 12 of our 12 schools. This again exceeds our initial target for follow up at 2 years (n, 2,208). In addition, 2,693 participants of 3,123 agreed to be followed up beyond T3, ensuring the cohorts are protected further waves of data collection.
(7) We completed face to face interviews and tasks with 803 pupils a T1 and 598 at T2 (74% of 803), exceeding our initial target for T1 (n, 552) and T2 (n, 497).
(8) All T1, T2, and T3 data have been entered and cleaned for analysis. Core analyses of data on the prevalence of mental health problems by demographic characteristics, e.g. gender and ethnicity, and on risk factors for conduct problems, are complete. Several papers reporting these findings have been published (e.g. Knowles et al, 2021; Blakey et al, 2021) or are under review in academic journals. For example, other core analyses, including latent trajectory modelling, have been completed and are in submission with academic journals (3 papers) or are in preparation (4 papers). Further findings have been presented at 5 international conferences.
In sum, all planned work has been completed and all targets have been met or exceeded.
In addition, we have established and implemented an extensive a programme of public engagement (REACHout) to raise awareness of our study and to increase impact.
Finally, we have secured funding, as part of a £8m award from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (PI: Craig Morgan) to establish a new research Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London, to continue to follow our cohorts at further time points.
