Healthy Social Relationships

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Chief Investigators

Through the course of the first ten years of DECIPHer, the centre developed comprehensive expertise and an excellent track record in research regarding the impact of family structures and relationships on health and well-being. Examples of studies included: feasibility and outcome evaluations of family substance misuse prevention programmes; qualitative studies exploring foster and residential carers’ experiences of managing young people’s self-harm and suicide; the development of interventions to connect schools and families and the adaptation and evaluation of interventions to support people with dementia and their family caregivers.

Consolidating this collective expertise and experience, DECIPHer has established a research programme ‘Healthy Social Relationships’. The programme is led by Dr Rhiannon Evans and Dr Jeremy Segrott. Studies related to these themes intersect with the priorities of other DECIPHer programmes and are supported by methodological innovation across the centre.

Capacity building for the programme is focused on developing Early Career Researchers, including through Post-doctoral Research Fellowships and PhD Studentships. To date PhD studentships have addressed: the experiences and needs of young carers; interventions to support the mental health and well-being of kinship carers; development and evaluation of an intervention to provide nutrition and physical activity during school holidays; and the experiences and needs of expectant fathers.

Engagement and impact is a central priority of the programme. It works closely with ALPHA and CASCADE Voices.

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Current studies

Past studies

Adopted children returning to care in Wales: Social worker perspectives

An exploration of Trends and experiences of delivery of breastfeeding support in England and Wales, since 2015  

Building Mentally Healthy Schools – what are the active ingredients?

Care-experienced cHildren and young people’s Interventions to improve Mental health and wEllbeing outcomes (CHIMES) Systematic review 

CHETS III – Children’s health, e-cigarettes and tobacco smoke: A mixed method study

Co-production or adaptation of online interventions for foster care: Promoting the mental health and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people

Does local authority care make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children? Longitudinal analyses of a retrospective
electronic cohort 

Establishing priorities and feasibility of interventions for children and families in Solace refuges. (SOLACE)

Health Pathfinder Evaluation (SafeLives) 

Mental health provision for children and young people in schools and FE colleges (11-25 years) with experiences of care: Mixed-method study of implementation, acceptability, need and priority outcomes

School-based interventions TO Prevent dating and relationship violence and gender-based violence (STOP-DRV-GBV): systematic review to understand characteristics, mechanisms, implementation and effectiveness 

Theory of Change and Evaluability Assessment for the Whole School Approach to Mental Health

Transdisciplinary Research for the Improvement of Youth Mental Public Health (TRIUMPH NETWORK)