Emotional Support for Young People A new programme funding research into young people’s experience of emotional support and how this forms part of the wider determinants of health

There is a well-established link between the wider determinants of health, such as economic security, and young people’s mental health outcomes. Research has shown that emotional support can act as a protective factor or ‘buffer’ when it comes to young people’s mental health outcomes.

In our Young people’s future health inquiry, participants aged 12–24 found a clear link between their mental health and the emotional support they received from their families. They also recognised social and economic factors that shaped their family members’ capacity (or ‘bandwidth’) to offer support.

Born out of the inquiry, this new programme – Emotional Support for Young People – will support four to six teams across the UK to complete research projects over 12–18 months. These will help develop the evidence base on what shapes the emotional support that young people experience, and the effect this has on their mental health outcomes. 

Invitation to apply 

The Emotional Support for Young People programme is an open call, available to suitably qualified and experienced research teams based in the UK (although individual members may be based abroad).  

Successful teams will receive funding of between £100,000 and £200,000, over 12–18 months, to complete research projects focused on at least one of the following priority areas: 

• understanding the role played by family relationships, and hence the emotional support experienced by young people, as part of the wider determinants of health 
• understanding the specific impact of family members’ working lives on the emotional support that young people experience from their families.

We encourage applications from multidisciplinary teams combining expertise from a broad range of disciplines, including social psychology, sociology and other social sciences. 

We expect young people to be meaningfully involved in the design and delivery of any proposed research, as they are involved in our processes. Members of our youth panel will review shortlisted applications, so applicants should make every effort to write in plain English. 

Interested? Then we encourage you to familiarise yourself with the application process and apply as soon as possible. If your proposal is rejected early on, you will have the opportunity to revise and resubmit before the extended deadline: Monday 13 June 2022, 10.00. We will not accept applications submitted after this deadline.  

How to apply 

Important: You must read our Notes for applicants in full before submitting an application via our online platform.  

Our Frequently asked questions document compiles popular queries received at youngpeople@health.org.uk, as well as questions from our information call held on Wednesday 27 April 2022. See the slides from the information call too.  

Key dates

Contact us 

If you have any questions about the programme that are not addressed here – or in the Notes for applicants or Frequently asked questions – please email youngpeople@health.org.uk. We will try to respond within 3 working days.