Young people with ADHD and/or autism have higher levels of mental health difficulties than their peers, and their experiences have been a key focus for several of the programmes.
Emotional burden in school
Previous thinking has proposed that the risk of depression in neurodivergent young people is due to deficits in their ability to regulate negative emotions. Through participatory research, the RE-STAR team identified an alternative pathway involving the emotional burden carried by neurodivergent young people as they seek to manage everyday events, explained in this podcast from Psychology in the Classroom.
Neurodivergent young people in their study faced twice the emotional burden at school compared to their neurotypical peers. They both had more frequent upsetting experiences - such as misunderstanding a social situation or being accused of being disruptive by a teacher - and also responded with greater emotional intensity. Both emotional burden and the traditional model of emotion regulation deficits are linked to depression.
Exploring how neurodivergent young people manage these emotional burdens has provided actionable insights for educators, caregivers and professionals in fostering inclusive, emotionally supportive environments to meet the needs of ADHD and autistic pupils. This work has also challenged some dominant models of autism, with some autistic participants reporting that a sense of belonging and feeling valued by others were fundamental for handling difficult situations.
Bringing these findings together with the results of applied theatre practices, workshops, focus groups and surveys with staff and neurodivergent young people, the team are developing Place Positive: a school-based intervention to reduce the risk of depression among pupils with ADHD or autism traits.
Neurodiversity and eating disorders
Members of the EDIFY team have been part of the Eating Disorder and Autism Collaborative Network (EDAC). Together, they have summarised the evidence on the experiences and outcomes of eating disorder treatment among autistic young people and those with higher autistic traits, finding that these groups report poorer experiences of treatment and may be at increased risk of inpatient admission and prolonged inpatient treatment.
Some concerns were reported about the alignment of some treatment approaches, meaning there is a need for increased understanding in this area. The EDAC team have developed best practice guidelines for ethical co-production with autistic individuals with an eating disorder, to help further research in this area.