Chronic pain and wellbeing
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of chronic pain on the psychological and social wellbeing of young people
IRAS ID
352153
Contact name
Bethan Spencer
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 21 days
Research summary
This research will explore young people’s experiences of chronic pain and its impact on their psychological and social wellbeing. The project will be participant-led and integrate patient and public involvement and engagement in order to remain grounded in young people’s first-hand experiences. Chronic pain is understood to be a condition in which the body, mind, and social development all play an integral role (the biopsychosocial model). As such, adopting a qualitative, constructivist grounded theory method to data collection and analysis, will enable a deep exploration of accounts resulting in a theory or framework informed by young people’s experiences. Eligible participants will be aged 11-18 years, will be attending the outpatient chronic pain clinic at Leeds Children’s Hospital, and able to give informed consent or assent. Participants will be asked to provide consent or assent, demographic details, and a short creative activity (optional). Options for this creative activity include: mood-board, narrative map or ‘tree of life’, and participants may spend as much or as little time as they wish completing this. Participants can share this with the researcher in physical or digital form (by emailing an image). Participants will then take part in an interview which will be flexible in length but is estimated to take around 45 minutes. Interviews will be informal, participant-led, and can end at any time the participant desires. Recruitment and interviewing is predicted to take approximately 2-4 months. The entire project is 3 years long. The output of this project will be a theory or framework, grounded in first-hand experiences, interpreting the psychological and social wellbeing of young people living with chronic pain.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/YH/0009
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jan 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion