Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, UK, and leader of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her group's research focuses on the development of social cognition and decision making in the human adolescent brain, and adolescent mental health. She will be in discussion with Chris Mann from BBC Cambridgeshire about her work. 3rd April 3-4pm.
What is the focus of your group's work?
My group's research focuses on brain and social development and mental health in adolescence. We run large-scale behavioural studies in schools and in the lab, as well as neuroimaging studies. Our research has shown that the network of brain regions that enable us to recognise the mental states, feelings and actions of others develop throughout adolescence, and that adolescence is a period of increased social interaction and peer affiliation.
There have been many reports before Covid about rising mental health issues in teenagers, with isolation being a huge issue. What does the science show?
There is now quite a lot of evidence to suggest that there has been an increase in mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and eating disorders in young people since the pandemic began. However, there are large individual differences, and while some adolescents are suffering, others are doing well despite the pandemic, school closures and not being able to see their friends much.
My group has been planning a study on the effects of social isolation in adolescence since early 2019. The pandemic has made this a much larger part of our research plans. We recently embarked on a large-scale study to investigate the effects of social isolation on adolescent cognition and emotion processing, led by Dr Livia Tomova, a research fellow at Hughes Hall who is based in my lab. It involves participants having a brain scan and experiencing short periods of social isolation followed by behavioural tasks and questionnaires.
How might social distancing affect teenagers?
At the beginning of lockdown I wrote a paper with my colleagues, Dr Amy Orben and Dr Tomova, on the effects of social distancing on adolescent development and mental health. It reviewed pre-Covid studies which highlight the importance of peer acceptance and peer influence in adolescence. Animal research has shown that social deprivation and isolation have unique effects on brain and behaviour in adolescence compared with other stages of life. However, the decrease in adolescent face-to-face contact might be less detrimental due to widespread access to digital forms of social interaction through technologies such as social media, although it is likely that physical distancing may have a disproportionate effect on an age group for whom peer interaction is a vital aspect of development.
We are about to start a large-scale study to investigate behaviour, mood and mental health during school closures, lockdowns and social distancing rules in adults and young people around the world. We are really interested in whether there are any behaviours - such as exercise, spending time outdoors, sleep and connecting with friends online - that might mitigate the potentially harmful effects of social isolation and social deprivation.
How can we encourage young people to keep social distancing as the months wear on?
Young people around the world have been blamed and shamed for their role in the spread of coronavirus. In my view, this is not fair and might be counterproductive. Young people are naturally driven to socialise and meet new people and romantic partners. There is evidence that empowering young people to influence each other to make positive and healthy decisions works better than adult-led campaigns. In the case of Covid-19, educating young people about the importance of social distancing and reducing social contact in order to reduce infection rates, including them in the discussion and incentivising them to run their own campaigns amongst their social networks, might have more of an impact than adults lecturing and blaming them.
What should the government do to get young people on side?
It's crucial to take into account the social needs of young people when making policy decisions, and to allow the voices of young people to be heard.
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