Dr Laura Tinner

Laura holds a Wellcome Early Career Award: Unlocking the potential of intersectionality for reducing adolescent mental health inequalities: a mixed methods and theoretically grounded approach. This fellowship brings together a large team of collaborators across academic, policy, voluntary community organisations, practice and those with direct experience, with the aim of informing equitable strategies for young people's mental health.

Intersectionality is the idea that people's experiences are shaped by several aspects of who they are, such as their gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexuality, or social background, and that these factors can interact to affect their opportunities and experiences.

The first part of the fellowship brought together a diverse group of young people to take part in creative workshops across London, Bradford and Glasgow. This qualitative research was used to understand what influences young people's mental health and what their priorities are. The data from this work led to a public report and several academic papers.

The second part of the work uses an intersectional multilevel modelling approach called i-MAIHDA. This helps researchers understand and compare how different combinations of social characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity and income, shape people's health and life experiences. It was used to map mental health inequalities in two large sets of data from longitudinal research studies: the Age of Wonder (Born in Bradford) cohort and Growing Up in Scotland.

The third part of the fellowship used Photovoice, a creative research method using photography, to help young people share their experiences of mental health inequalities.

The fourth stage brings together findings from across the project, to work with policymakers to develop approaches that better address mental health inequalities among young people.

This fellowship is supported by a national Youth Advisory Panel, hosted by the Association for Young People’s Health as well as a Steering Committee.