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Addressing international research challenges in child and adolescent mental health during global crises: experience and recommendations of the Co-SPACE international consortium

Abstract:
During the most recent global crisis due to COVID-19 pandemic, mental health researchers globally were tasked with carrying out high-quality and responsive research to understand the changes and long-term trajectories in young people’s mental health symptoms. Comparative international longitudinal research has been recommended as a particularly promising avenue to understand pandemic impacts and facilitate global solutions. The Co-SPACE International Consortium comprises researchers from 14 sites who aimed to compare findings on the impact of the pandemic on young people and family mental health. This paper describes the process and challenges associated with the Consortium’s efforts to combine country-level data to produce global insights for research and clinical practice for the past three years. Several key challenges were identified, particularly about the conduct of international comparative research. These challenges concerned funding, ethics review, data sharing, variations in cultural and local contexts, lack of cross-culturally comparable or meaningful measures, research design, and dissemination. After considering these challenges, we provide a range of recommendations that provide a blueprint for the gathering of timely and robust evidence, the identification of global trends, the mobilisation of resources, and effective support to children and families in public health crises.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1186/s13034-025-00918-0

Authors

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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Experimental Psychology
Role:
Author
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MSD
Department:
Psychiatry
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0003-1889-0956


More from this funder
Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/03n0ht308
Grant:
2689613
Programme:
South West Doctorial Training Partnership
More from this funder
Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/001aqnf71
Grant:
ES/W011972/1
ES/V004034/1
More from this funder
Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/011kf5r70
Grant:
GNT1179490
More from this funder
Funder identifier:
https://ror.org/00d503m77


Publisher:
BioMed Central
Journal:
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health More from this journal
Volume:
19
Issue:
1
Article number:
62
Publication date:
2025-05-29
Acceptance date:
2025-05-14
DOI:
EISSN:
1753-2000


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
2124104
Local pid:
pubs:2124104
Deposit date:
2025-05-15
ARK identifier:

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