Lucy’s research group at the University of Oxford focuses on mental health and social development in adolescence. In particular, they are investigating whether efforts intended to reduce mental health problems, such as awareness-raising campaigns and school initiatives, may have had unintended negative consequences.

Current research projects are organised into three streams:

•  Understanding how school-based mental health interventions might lead to unintended harm in adolescents, and who is most at risk

• Assessing how learning about mental health problems might change adolescents’ reporting and experiencing of these symptoms, using experimental paradigms

• Exploring self-diagnosis of mental health problems in adolescence, attitudes towards this phenomenon, and its benefits and costs

Recent papers:

• Foulkes, L., & Andrews, J. L. (2023). Are mental health awareness efforts contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems? A call to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis. New Ideas in Psychology, 69, 101010.

• Foulkes, L., & Stringaris, A. (2023). Do no harm: can school mental health interventions cause iatrogenic harm? BJPsych Bulletin, 1-3.

A full list of Lucy’s academic publications can be found here