📅 Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton is hosting an ACAMH webinar, 'Helping Anxious Parents Raise Confident Children: Preventing the Intergenerational Transmission of Anxiety', on 17 November 2026 at 2pm UK time.

📷 Follow Fearless Labs on Instagram for practical, evidence-based tips for parents and professionals: @fearless.labs

In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour (Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (Professor of Psychology at the University of York) sift through the data, dilemmas and debates around childhood anxiety disorders — before bringing in special guest Professor Sam Cartwright-Hatton, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sussex and Director of Fearless Labs.

Drawing on Tamsin Ford's influential editorial, 'Why I am now convinced that emotional disorders are increasingly common among young people in many countries', published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jane and Umar open by questioning society's mixed messaging around anxiety, before Sam joins to unpack the evidence on prevention, parenting and treatment.

In this conversation on childhood anxiety, parenting and prevention, mental health literacy, and digital interventions, the trio unpack:
- Why distinguishing "I'm anxious about this" from "I have an anxiety disorder" matters — and why avoidance, not anxiety itself, is often the real problem
- The latest UK prevalence data: around 3.9% of 5-10 year-olds and 13.1% of 17-19 year-olds have a diagnosable anxiety disorder, according to the British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey
- Why it's genuinely difficult to know if anxiety disorders are truly increasing, given changing questionnaires and growing openness about mental health — and the "dark side" of destigmatisation flagged by researcher Lucy Foulkes
- Why anxiety is an adaptive personality trait that evolution needed — and what determines whether it tips over into a disorder
- Sam's "Three L's" framework for parents: Love, Limits, and Little -Pushes — and why good behaviour management matters just as much for anxious kids as for behaviourally-challenged ones
- Why universal, whole-classroom anxiety and mindfulness programmes (including findings from the MYRIAD trial) show weak or even harmful effects — and why targeted, opt-in approaches may work better
- How the school environment itself — nutrition, exercise, relationships — functions as a passive mental health intervention
- Evidence from a randomised controlled trial of over 1,800 families showing that a scalable, unsupported digital parenting course, Parenting with Anxiety, produced real reductions in child anxiety symptoms with no reported harms
- Why an app being popular or "feeling helpful" doesn't mean it's evidence-based — and why unregulated mental health apps could do more harm than good

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This episode of the Mind the Kids podcast is called "Parenting Intervention: Finding the Goldilocks Zone." Hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour, honorary consultant clinical psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Umar Toseeb, Professor of Psychology at the University of York specialising in children and young people's mental health and special educational needs, are joined by a trio of experts: Julia Ruggiero, advanced PhD student in clinical psychology at the University of Oregon, Dr. Xiaolan Liao from the University of Oklahoma, and Professor Elizabeth Skowron from Penn State University.

The guests are co-authors of "Effects of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy Dosage on Child and Parent Outcomes: Differentiating Child-Directed Interaction and Parent-Directed Interaction Session Impacts in Child Welfare-Involved Families," published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP). Drawing on a sample of 204 child welfare-involved families, the study examines how the dosage of the two phases of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) — child-directed interaction (CDI), which builds warmth and relationship quality, and parent-directed interaction (PDI), which teaches safe, effective discipline and limit-setting — shapes parenting skills and child behaviour outcomes.

The conversation explores:
- What Parent-Child Interaction Therapy actually looks like in the room, including the therapist "in the parent's ear" coaching model
- Why the relationship-building CDI phase and the limit-setting PDI phase teach parents distinct skills, and how the two phases interact with each other
- The evidence base for PCIT with child welfare-involved families, including striking three-year re-abuse rates and cost-effectiveness data
- Why the study's key finding — that dosage in one phase interacts with dosage in the other — challenges the assumption that "more sessions" always means "better outcomes"
- Barriers to engagement facing families experiencing deprivation, and practical strategies (transport, childcare, food, community-based delivery) that improve treatment completion
- How the core principles of PCIT, connection before correction, might translate differently across developmental stages, from preschoolers to teenagers
- Why caution is needed before drawing strong causal conclusions from dose-response data that wasn't itself randomised

This episode is essential listening for clinical psychologists, child welfare practitioners, family therapists, researchers, and policymakers interested in evidence-based parenting interventions, child welfare services, and how treatment dosage and sequencing affect outcomes for vulnerable families.

📄 Read the full paper, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry: 'Effects of parent–child interaction therapy dosage on child and parent outcomes: differentiating child-directed interaction and parent-directed interaction session impacts in child welfare-involved families'
Xiaolan Liao, Julia P. Ruggiero, David E. Bard, Adon F. G. Rosen, Elizabeth A. Skowron
First published: 03 February 2026 https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.70106

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This episode of the Mind the Kids podcast is called "Problem Eating in a Community Sample: The Thin End of a Wedge." Hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour, honorary consultant clinical psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL, and Professor Umar Toseeb, Professor of Psychology at the University of York specialising in children and young people's mental health and special educational needs, are joined by Dr. Clara Faria from the University of Cambridge to discuss eating difficulties and eating disorders in young people.

Dr. Faria is the lead author of "The Prevalence of Eating Difficulties in Children and Young People in England: A Large, Cross-Sectional School Survey," published in JCPP Advances, one of ACAMH's journals. Drawing on 2023 data from the OxWell Student Survey — a large school-based survey led by Professor Mina Fazel — the study found that eating difficulties are common among secondary school students, with a weighted prevalence of 62.5% reporting at least one type of eating difficulty. Using the DAWBA screening items, the most endorsed difficulty was believing you were fat when others said you were thin (47.3%), while the least endorsed, but still striking, was self-induced vomiting (17.7%).

The conversation explores:
- The difference between disordered eating, problem eating, and clinically diagnosable eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder), OSFED, and binge eating disorder
- What the evidence says about the transition from disordered eating to a diagnosable eating disorder, including longitudinal and twin-study findings on body dissatisfaction and gender differences in risk
- Whether eating disorders sit within an internalising or externalising framework, and why binge eating disorder may not fit neatly into either
- The impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on eating difficulties, body image, and screen time among young people
- What schools and clinicians can learn from family-based treatment and non-judgmental approaches such as the Body Project when supporting young people with problematic eating

This episode is essential listening for child and adolescent psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, researchers, educators, and school staff interested in youth mental health, eating disorders, body image, and evidence-based approaches to supporting young people with problem eating.

📄 Read the full paper, published in JCPP Advances: The prevalence of eating difficulties in children and young people in England: A large, cross-sectional school survey
Clara Faria, The OxWell Study Team, Mina Fazel, Emma Soneson, Tamsin J. Ford, Simon White
https://doi.org/10.1002/jcv2.70111

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In this episode of Inside the Teen Brain, Dr. Jane Gilmour speaks with Rayne Huggins about the experience of being diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Drawing on personal lived experience, Rayne reflects on what a diagnosis can mean for a young person and explores the pros and cons of receiving one. Together, they consider how a diagnosis can shape not only how a person understands themselves, but also their sense of identity and connection to a wider community. Honest and thought-provoking, the conversation offers a valuable first-hand perspective on living with Tourette syndrome and what diagnosis can come to represent.

Learning Objectives
A. To understand what it means to be diagnosed with tourette syndrome.
B. To explore pros and cons of attaining a diagnosis of tourette syndrome.
C. To explore how this may shape identity and community

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How does research actually change government policy? In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr Jane Gilmour (UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (University of York) sit down with Baroness Ruth Lister — Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University, Fellow of the British Academy, and a Labour peer in the House of Lords — to unpack how evidence, political will and public appetite combine (or collide) to shape social policy for children living in poverty.

This conversation goes behind the headlines of the UK's child poverty strategy, including the abolition of the two-child benefit limit from April 2026 — a change expected to be the single biggest reduction in child poverty any UK government has delivered at a stroke, after CPAG research linked the policy to roughly 109 children entering poverty every day.

In this episode we cover:
– How the House of Lords scrutinises legislation, and Baroness Lister's role as a backbench "critical friend"
– Why politicians cherry-pick evidence — and when evidence gets overridden by ideology or public appetite
– The real story behind scrapping the two-child benefit limit, and why the benefit cap remains in place despite similar evidence of harm
– Why UK child poverty sits at 27% (down from around 30% following a measurement change) and what's really driving it — frozen benefits, insecure work, and rising housing costs
– The civil service vs. ministers vs. MPs: who academics should really be talking to for policy impact
– Why "child poverty," not "family poverty," was the deliberately chosen framing that built public support
– The power of lived experience in policymaking, including the Changing Realities project and the Timms PIP review
– Interpersonal relationships and community interventions as a positive, low-cost buffer against the harms of poverty
– Why child poverty is a mental health issue — and how squeezed welfare budgets often resurface as pressure on CAMHS and schools

Whether you're a researcher trying to translate evidence into real-world impact, a clinician working with families affected by poverty, or simply want to understand how policy really gets made in Westminster, this episode is essential listening.

Mind the Kids is brought to you by ACAMH (Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health), translating the latest child and adolescent mental health research into evidence-based conversation.

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In this conversation, Dr. Jane Gilmour and Professor Susan Young explore what it means to understand ADHD through the lens of the teenage brain. Adolescence is a period of rapid change, marked by increased risk-taking, emotional intensity, and a drive for novelty—characteristics that are also central to ADHD. She considers what happens when these developmental processes intersect, and how to distinguish between what is typical, what is neurodivergent, and what may be misunderstood.

Professor Young reflects on how ADHD presents and evolves across adolescence and into young adulthood, challenging dominant narratives, including debates around overdiagnosis and late identification. She also examines more complex and often overlooked issues in practice, such as the relationship between ADHD and trauma, risk-taking behaviours including substance use, and pathways into the criminal justice system.

The discussion moves beyond theory to consider what works in practice, including how clinicians can better engage young people in evidence-based interventions such as CBT, and what practical changes can make a meaningful difference. Overall, this conversation brings together research, clinical experience, and real-world challenges to better understand and support neurodivergent young people.

Learning Objectives
A. To understand ADHD through the lens of adolescent development
B. To recognise areas of debate and uncertainty in ADHD (e.g. diagnosis, trauma, risk)
C. To identify practical approaches to supporting and engaging young people

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How smart is a phone ban, really? With the UK's under-16s social media ban confirmed for spring 2027 and mobile phones now expected to be banned from every English school day by default, this episode of Mind the Kids tackles one of the biggest parenting and policy debates of our time: what does the evidence actually say about smartphones, social media and children's mental health?

Hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour (Honorary consultant clinical psychologist and child development programme director at UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (Professor of Psychology at the University of York) are joined by Professor Lisa Henderson from the University of York, author of two Child and Adolescent Mental Health Journal papers: "Digital Safeguarding Incidents in Schools With and Without Smartphone Policies" and "Innovations in Practice: A Pilot Randomised Trial on Smartphone and Social Media Abstinence."

In this episode we unpack:
– What the UK's social media ban for under-16s actually means for platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat
– Why comparing the UK ban to Australia's isn't a fair like-for-like comparison
– New pilot RCT data on smartphone and social media abstinence, sleep quality and wellbeing in adolescents
– What happens to digital safeguarding incident reporting when schools introduce phone policies
– The "lost generation" risk — teens already embedded in social platforms navigating an abrupt policy shift
– Why parental phone habits predict children's smartphone use
– The "Goldilocks" amount of social media time, and why moderate use isn't the enemy

If you work in education, child psychology, safeguarding, or you're a parent trying to make sense of the smartphone ban headlines, this conversation goes well beyond the soundbites.

Mind the Kids is brought to you by ACAMH (Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health), translating the latest child and adolescent mental health research into evidence-based conversation.

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Read the JCPP paper ‘Digital safeguarding incidents in schools with and without smartphone policies: a cross-sectional study in England'
https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70079
Emma Sullivan, Rob Dallison, Pete Montgomery, Lisa Henderson
First published: 11 March 2026

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Don't miss our webinar debate 'Regulating Social Media Use in Children and Young People – Are bans justified?' This 1.5-hour online debate brings together leading experts to examine whether age-based social media bans are an appropriate policy response to concerns about children and young people’s mental health.
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In this interview, Dr. Jane Gilmour talks to Mairéad Foody, Assistant Lecturer in Psychology at University of Galway, Ireland.

Bullying is a harmful experience for many children and young people, affecting their mental health, relationships, and wellbeing into adulthood.

This talk will help listeners understand what bullying and cyberbullying are, and why they happens. It will discuss the impact of victimisation on children and adolescents and it will outline the different roles involved in bullying/cyberbullying situations (not just bullies and victims, but also bystanders and defenders).

Overall, the goal is to provide a clearer picture of how complex bullying and cyberbullying really are and why effective responses must consider individuals, peer groups, families, and schools together.

Learning Objectives
A. To understand what bullying and cyberbullying are and their prevalence.
B. To outline the impact of bullying and cyberbullying on children and adolescents.
C. To describe anti-bullying interventions.

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Please email [email protected] if you would like to learn more.

Why do so many young people with ADHD find it harder to bounce back from difficult emotions — and what can actually help?

This episode of the Mind the Kids podcast features Professor Aja Murray, Professor of Developmental Psychology of Mental Health at the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. Aja's research examines mental health across the lifespan, with a particular focus on the links between ADHD symptoms and co-occurring mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, especially during adolescence.

Hosted by Mark Tebbs, the conversation explores the Mental Health in the Moment ADHD (MHIM-ADHD) programme of research, funded by the Medical Research Foundation, conducted with colleagues including Dejla Hoxha, Daria Melashenko, and Amanda Russell at the University of Edinburgh, alongside guidance from the project's young person and lived-experience advisory group.

The discussion opens by unpacking two key terms: ADHD, characterised by difficulties with attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity and diagnosed in up to around 8% of children and adolescents globally, and emotion dysregulation, the breakdown of the processes people use to identify, manage and respond to their emotions. Aja explains how emotion dysregulation, while not a core symptom of ADHD, is a commonly associated feature that can show up as intense or changeable emotions, emotions that take longer to settle, or emotionally driven behaviour such as lashing out.

Drawing on ecological momentary assessment methods that capture emotion regulation as it unfolds in daily life, alongside longitudinal data, Aja shares findings on how emotion dysregulation sits on the pathway between ADHD symptoms and elevated risk of anxiety and depression, and how patterns like rumination are a particularly important feature of this pathway. The conversation also explores rejection sensitivity dysphoria — the tendency to anxiously or angrily anticipate social rejection — a concept gaining significant attention within the ADHD community. The project's lived-experience advisory group specifically recommended including a measure of rejection sensitivity, informed by broader work on co-producing adolescent mental health research with young people (Health Expectations). Findings show rejection sensitivity dysphoria is linked to more negative emotions day to day, but that positive peer interactions can buffer this effect, pointing to peer acceptance as a promising avenue for support.

Aja also sets out practical, evidence-based strategies for adolescents with ADHD and the adults who support them, including cognitive reappraisal, techniques for interrupting rumination, acceptance, square breathing, and the "grounding" 5-4-3-2-1 technique. The conversation covers the crucial role of parents and caregivers in modelling emotion regulation, understanding how the ADHD brain processes emotion, and responding supportively rather than dismissively to emotional expression — plus a look at positive emotion regulation, including noticing, savouring and sharing good moments. Aja closes with an update on the team's emerging work on teacher relationships, autistic traits, and a co-produced digital emotion regulation app for adolescents with ADHD.

This conversation is essential listening for clinicians, researchers, educators, and parents and caregivers interested in child and adolescent mental health, ADHD, emotion regulation, and rejection sensitivity dysphoria. It offers a clear, hopeful message: emotion regulation is a skill that can be learned, practised, and strengthened over time.

Learn more about the MHIM-ADHD study protocol: 'Illuminating the daily life experiences of adolescents with and without ADHD: protocol for an ecological momentary assessment study', Aja Murray, Lydia Speyer, Melissa Thye, et al. BMJ Open, published 29 September 2023. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-077222

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Don't miss our webinar on 04/11/26 Led by leading expert Dr. Alessio Bellato 'Assessment Tools and Interventions for Emotion (Dys)Regulation: Practical Approaches'. Emotion regulation is a key skill for well-being, yet individuals, particularly those who are neurodivergent, may experience unique challenges in managing emotions in daily life. This two-part short course provides a practical approach to understanding, assessing, and providing personalised support across diverse populations.

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In this interview, Dr. Jane Gilmour talks to Professor Michael Kaess and Professor Dennis Ougrin, who describe self-harm as self-injury or self-poisoning, irrespective of suicidal intent, encompassing both non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempts. 

They highlight that the lifetime prevalence of self-harm is approximately 20% among young people. They outline that initial assessment should include evaluation of risk, development of a safety plan, and a therapeutic component focused on understanding the nature of self-harm, instilling hope, and linking young people with follow-up treatment. 

They discuss evidence-based approaches to intervention, noting that Dialectical Behaviour Therapy should be offered to young people with severe self-harm. They also consider preventative approaches, including school-based interventions such as the Youth Aware of Mental Health programme, which may reduce self-harm in young people.

Learning Objectives
A. To define self-harm
B. To understand the prevalence and risk factors
C. To critically evaluate treatment evidence-base

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