Children and Young People's Experiences of School (COPMI School)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Children and Young People's Experiences of School when they live with a Parent with a Mental Illness.
IRAS ID
264756
Contact name
Kim Holt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Northumbria at Newcastle
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
750, Northumbria University Ethics Submission Ref
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
This study is part of a PhD project which aims to develop an understanding of the experiences of children and young people living with a parent who has a mental illness. As young people spend more than 7800 hours at school over the course of their education, their time at school will inevitably have an impact on their lives. When children are living with parental mental illness, it is important to understand the context in which they experience school. Previous research has focused on health related or psychiatric quality of life in this population, rather than their educational development, and those that have investigated this part of their lives have done so by measuring educational attainment rather than the experiences of the young people themselves. Therefore, this study will interview children and young people aged 11-18 about their experiences of school. The interviews will utilise a Grounded Theory (GT) methodology which allows the young people to shape the content and direction of the interviews and involves concurrent data collection and analysis. Young people will be eligible to take part if they are currently in full time education, live with a parent with a mental illness for at least half of the week on average and do not have a moderate-severe learning disability. They will not be eligible to participate if their parent with a mental illness also has a moderate-severe learning disability, a physical disability that requires their child to care for them or a primary diagnosis of drug or alcohol abuse. Interviews should take no longer than 2 hours and will take place on NHS property or in the participants' home. Parental consent will be required for all participants aged 11-15.
REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NE/0056
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion