Get a Grip - Evidence-Based Conversations for Parents and Educators

New research from Dr Holly Bear and colleagues has found that one in three young people responding to a large survey had encountered self-harm content online in the previous month, with most not actively looking for it. In this interview, Dr Bear explores how this content reaches young people, what the findings reveal about passive and active exposure, and why understanding how young people encounter self-harm content matters. She offers practical advice for parents and educators on starting supportive conversations, responding calmly if a young person has seen this content, and helping young people navigate their online lives safely.

Dr Holly Bear is a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. She studies young people's mental health and the online worlds they grow up in, from social media to AI chatbots and how young people look for support online.

Billy Waters was a Black sailor, disabled veteran and celebrated street performer in Regency London, but his remarkable story has largely disappeared from popular history. In this interview, our Researchers of the Month, Professor Mary Shannon, Dr Ben Marsh and PhD student Himan Heidari, discuss their innovative new, free teaching resources and explore how Billy's life can open up rich classroom conversations about Black British history, identity, disability, belonging and representation.

In this wide-ranging interview, Professor Nick Haslam explores ‘concept creep’, mental health awareness and the risks of over-pathologising everyday experiences. He considers why younger people may be more likely to self-diagnose and how we might promote mental health literacy without encouraging young people to view ordinary distress through a clinical lens. He also touches on what this might mean for resilience, empathy and our sense of belonging, and reflects on the challenges facing young people as they transition to university.

AI-generated sexual deepfakes are an emerging challenge for schools, raising complex questions around safeguarding, sexual violence, consent, digital ethics and the law. Our latest Researcher of the Month article, Professor Tanya Horeck discusses her recent research with UK schools and young people, exploring what they understand about deepfake sexual abuse and where significant gaps remain. She offers practical advice on prevention and response, from embedding the topic within wider RSHE and challenging misogyny to supporting victims, engaging boys constructively and empowering pupils as active bystanders. She also considers how parents and teachers can keep conversations about AI, digital intimacy and ethical online behaviour open as the technology continues to evolve.

A clarification from Professor Horeck: In our discussion of LGBTQ+ young people towards the end of this interview, Professor Horeck referred to research showing higher rates of image-based sexual abuse among gender- and sexuality-diverse young people, as well as research indicating higher levels of reporting of image-based sexual abuse among LGBTQ+ communities. Evidence specifically examining LGBTQ+ young people's experiences of AI-facilitated sexual abuse is still emerging, and we do not currently know whether these young people are at greater risk of this particular form of abuse.

What does effective drugs education actually look like? Our latest Researcher of the Month, Professor Harry Sumnall, introduces The Illicit Project UK, an innovative, evidence-based prevention programme currently being trialled in UK schools. He explains why fear-based approaches often backfire, what research tells us about helping young people make safer decisions and how schools and families can have more effective conversations about drugs, alcohol and vaping.

We often assume that praise and positive feedback will inevitably boost motivation and performance. But the timing and interpretation of praise might matter more than we realise. Researcher of the Month, Professor Nils Jostmann, explores the psychology of coasting and discusses when positive feedback can inadvertently undermine motivation. Tune in to find out the surprising science behind positive feedback and how to use praise most effectively.

Our Researcher of the Month, Dr Sophie King-Hill, Associate Professor in the School of Social Policy and Society, University of Birmingham, explores the complex realities facing boys and young men today, including identity, performative masculinity, mental health and online influences. As we explore some practical resources for teachers and parents, she talks about how social pressures can shape behaviour and why creating safe, non-judgemental spaces for conversation is so vital.

Professor Maria Loades, clinical psychologist and researcher at the University of Bath, is working to transform how young people access mental health support. With many teens struggling to seek help and services stretched beyond capacity, her research explores new, scalable approaches that could complement existing routes to support. This includes innovative and short digital interventions that can be accessed on demand. Her work offers fresh insight into how we can better support young people before difficulties escalate.

Professor Michael Pluess, a leading expert in environmental sensitivity, explores what it means to be highly sensitive and how this personality trait can impact children’s experiences at home and in school. Drawing on research, he highlights both the challenges and strengths associated with high sensitivity, and offers practical, evidence-based strategies to support children in ways that help them thrive.

Our latest Researcher of the Month, Professor Joel Talcott, has worked with a team of researchers to develop a new universal screening tool for all five and six year olds in UK schools. It will launch in Autumn 2026. Based on classroom observation, the Universal Classroom screener will be delivered and managed by teachers. It assesses a small set of key cognitive skills that support current and future learning (phonological awareness and decoding, vocabulary, attention, working memory and social-emotional processing). Here, Professor Talcott chats to us about the screener, and explores how it identifies both weak areas in children’s skills, which can then be targeted with support or intervention, alongside strengths, which can be augmented to foster further growth.