Lizzy Winstone

University of Bristol | UB · School of Social and Community Medicine

Background Suicide rates have risen in young people in several high-income countries over the last decade. Reasons for the increases are unclear. Methods We analysed trends in suicide rates in 15-24 year olds over the period 2000-2017 in high-income countries with populations >20 million using Joinpoint analysis. We investigated differences in the...

Background There is increasing concern regarding the potential impact of social media use on the mental health of young people. Previous research has relied heavily on retrospective accounts of social media screen-time. Yet recent evidence suggests that such self-report measures are unreliable, correlating poorly with more objective measures of soc...

Objectives Most of the evidence on the effects of internet use on mental health derives from cross-sectional research. We set out to explore prospective associations between internet use (hours online and specific internet experiences) and future mental health problems. Methods Participants were 1,431 respondents from the Avon Longitudinal Study o...

Background Connectedness to family and peers is a key determinant of adolescent mental health. Existing research examining associations between social media use and social connectedness has been largely quantitative and has focused primarily on loneliness, or on specific aspects of peer relationships. In this qualitative study we use the displaceme...

There is mixed evidence as to the effects of different types of social media use on mental health, but previous research has been platform‐specific and has focused on an oversimplified distinction between active and passive use. This study aimed to identify different underlying subgroups of adolescent social media user based on their pattern of soc...

Parental substance use is highly prevalent worldwide, presenting major child safeguarding and public health concerns. Qualitative research enables in-depth understanding of how young people experience parental substance use and helps inform practice and policy through illustrative cases of experiences. This review aimed to synthesize published qual...

BACKGROUND The positive and negative effects of interacting with online content on mental health and especially self-harm, are well documented. Lived experience stories are one such type of static online content, frequently published on healthcare or third sector organization websites, as well as social media and blogs, as a form of support for tho...

Background: The positive and negative effects of interacting with web-based content on mental health, and especially self-harm, are well documented. Lived experience stories are one such type of static web-based content, frequently published on health care or third-sector organization websites, as well as social media and blogs, as a form of suppo...

The relationship between mental health and social media has received significant research and policy attention. However, there is little population-representative data about who social media users are which limits understanding of confounding factors between mental health and social media. Here we profile users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap...

The COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ and multiple school closures disrupted the daily lives and routines of the entire UK population. However, adolescents were likely particularly impacted by such measures due to this time being key for social and educational development. This qualitative study explored young people’s experiences of lockdowns and school closure...

School closures and social distancing measures during the pandemic have disrupted young people’s daily routines and social relationships. We explored patterns of change in adolescent mental health and tested the relationship between pre-pandemic levels of school and peer connectedness and changes in mental health and well-being between the first lo...

Evidence on how different types of social media use contribute to digital stress in early adolescence is lacking. In-depth interviews were conducted with 24 13–14-year-olds. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded and thematically analysed. Themes were generated based on digital stressors specific to passive social media use (time-wasting and d...

Evidence on how different types of social media use contribute to digital stress in early adolescence is lacking. In-depth interviews were conducted with twenty-four 13-14-year-olds. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded and thematically analysed. Themes were generated based on digital stressors specific to passive social media use (time-wast...

The relationship between mental health and social media has received significant research and policy attention. However, there is little population representative data about who social media users are which limits understanding of confounding in associations between mental health and social media. Here we profile users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagr...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic, school closures, and social distancing measures have disrupted young people's daily routines, learning, and social relationships. We examine the changes in adolescent mental health over time and explore the relationship between how connected students felt to their school and peers before the pandemic and how this a...

Background There is mixed evidence as to the effects of different types of social media use on mental health, but previous research has been platform-specific and has focused on an oversimplified distinction between active and passive use. This study aimed to identify different underlying subgroups of adolescent social media user based on their pat...

Background Connectedness to school, family and peers is a key determinant of adolescent mental health. The relationship between social media use (SMU) and social connectedness is complex, potentially improving closeness to peers, whilst possibly diminishing school connectedness. Evidence to date has been piecemeal and contradictory with particular...

Background: Against the background of a rising demand for informal care in European societies, this study sets out to provide descriptive information by gender on (i) prevalence rates of (intensive) informal caregiving, (ii) characteristics of (intensive) informal caregivers and (iii) consequences of (intensive) informal caregiving in terms of men...

Attitudes toward gay men and lesbians are generally more tolerant in Western than in Eastern Europe. This study uses data from the first five rounds of the European Social Survey to examine acculturation among migrants moving from Eastern Europe to Western Europe, in terms of attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. After controlling for background f...