For Participants

As a direct result of  you and your family’s support, this study has led to key (and internationally important) discoveries regarding adolescent development and mental health. It has also led to the development of tools to help promote good adolescent mental health. These achievements would not have been possible without the time and commitment you and your family have demonstrated, and we are grateful for your participation.

Participation in future research:

OADS participants, you are now adults! We are interested in learning about how the transition from adolescence to adulthood went, and would like to check-in with participants to ask some questions. Age 18  to the late-twenties, otherwise known as “emerging adulthood”, is an important transition period where individuals face a lot of new challenges. Emerging adulthood is recognised as a distinct stage of life with unique developmental goals and life transitions relating to social and occupational functioning. It is also a time when rates of common mental health, drug use and behaviour problems typically reach their highest point. While emerging adulthood may be a period of vulnerability, it is also a window of opportunity for changing the life course, with research showing that positive development during this period is predictive of a successful transition to adulthood.

We would love to know how you are doing now so that we can link this information with the information you provided us with during adolescence. We will then be able to investigate which factors during adolescence (for example, parenting, temperament, mental health, genetics, neurobiology, stress) can predict outcomes in adulthood. This will help us to work out how we can help future adolescents achieve the best outcomes later in life.

In 2019, we will be contacting all participants who have not withdrawn from the study about the fifth wave of the OADS, which we have termed the ‘Adolescence to Emerging Adulthood (A2EA) Study’. In this follow-up, we will invite participants to complete some online questionnaires and an interview (that can be done online or on the phone) and won’t take more than 2-3 hours. Participants will be reimbursed for their time. If participants agree, we will also send a parent a brief questionnaire, that can be completed online.