Tracking Children and Young People’s Mental Health in England: A Landmark Dataset Spanning 2017-2023
The Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) dataset provides one of the most comprehensive sources of information on the mental health of children and adolescents in England. The study began in 2017 with more than 9,000 participants aged 2 to 19, offering a detailed baseline picture of mental health before the COVID-19 pandemic. Four follow-up surveys, conducted between 2020 and 2023, now allow researchers to examine how young people’s mental health and wellbeing have changed over time. The dataset is a key resource for studying child and adolescent mental health, service need, and the wider social and family factors that shape young people’s lives.
The MHCYP 2017 survey selected children and young people aged 2 to 19 years across England to represent all children of this age living in the country. Information was collected from parents, young people aged 11 and over, and teachers using the Development and Wellbeing Assessment. A small team of doctors and psychologists used the information from all informants to identify a range of mental health conditions - including anxiety, depression, ADHD, autism, and eating disorders - using internationally accepted diagnostic criteria. Details of the dataset and its development are published in the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS).
To track changes over time, follow-up surveys were carried out in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023. These waves measured emotional and behavioural difficulties using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and included questions about family circumstances, school experiences, social media use, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Later waves also introduced assessments of psychotic-like experiences and personality disorder traits, offering a broader picture of emerging mental health needs.
Together with earlier national surveys conducted in 1999 and 2004, the MHCYP dataset offers a rare opportunity to study long-term trends in child and adolescent mental health in the UK.
As concerns about young people’s mental health continue to grow, the MHCYP dataset provides an essential evidence base for understanding patterns of mental health difficulties and the factors associated with them. With data from all waves soon available through the UK Data Service, researchers will be able to explore how mental health changes over time, how it relates to family and social environments, and how major events such as the pandemic shape young people’s experiences. As Professor Tamsin Ford, academic lead of the Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) study, notes: “These data provide a huge opportunity for researchers and policy makers to explore which children and families did better or worse during the recent Pandemic.”
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Professor Tamsin Ford, Head of the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, UK