The RE-STAR team will find new ways to understand emotional difficulties from the perspective of neurodivergent young people and improve the measurement of these issues. Based on young people's experiences, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and his team will look at strategies for neurodivergent young people to build their resilience.
Why this project matters
Young people who are autistic or have ADHD are a higher-risk group for developing depression during adolescence. Currently, we don’t understand why this is the case.
Edmund and his team are addressing this problem with their research project Regulating Emotions-Strengthening Adolescent Resilience (RE-STAR). RE-STAR is a multi-disciplinary collective of academic researchers, neurodivergent young people and stakeholder practitioners. Together, they are exploring the links between young people’s experiences of and response to adverse emotional events and settings in school, and their emergent risk of depression.
They will use the information gathered to develop school-based interventions to support resilience in young people and reduce the likelihood of them developing depression.
This research combines neuroscience and psychology with applied theatre expertise.
About the project
The four-year project has three aims:
- Working with and learning from neurodivergent people to explore and find better ways to measure emotional responses to everyday stressors.
- Use the new emotional response measure, to better understand the mechanisms that lead to adolescent depression in neurodivergent young people, and identify potential new targets for intervention.
- Developing new strategies to reduce the likelihood of neurodivergent young people developing depression during adolescence. This will consider environmental adaptations as well as ways to support young people to better manage challenging situations.
The RE-STAR team will work closely with neurodivergent young people. At the outset of the program, the academic researchers recruited a youth researcher panel to co-produce the research with them. Together, they are co-developing the study’s research questions, co-designing research materials (e.g., questionnaires, interview schedules, experimental stimuli), co-delivering the data collection, co-analysing data and interpreting findings and disseminating them.
This project is leading by example by embedding the lived expertise of neurodivergent people in neuroscience research.
How this project is making more of a difference
- This project is breaking new ground by producing mental health research for neurodivergent young people, with neurodivergent young people.
- This project will lead to new understandings of how neurodivergent young people experience and manage strong emotions, based on the perspectives of the young people themselves.
- It is hoped that this will lead to the development of more effective strategies for supporting the emotional wellbeing of neurodivergent adolescents
- This project uses a unique combination of science and arts-based methods for data collection and knowledge exchange.
How we are involved
We’re proud to partner on this project, as it aligns with our 2030 Goals that all autistic people will have support from day one and a yearly tailored health check – including mental health.
As a partner, we are supporting this project by:
- Taking part in regular management group meetings.
- Recruiting participants.
- Advising on issues such as ethical practice and safeguarding.
- Assisting with public engagement events and sharing findings with our Autistica Network and policymakers.
Interested in learning more? Find out more about the project by visiting the RE-STAR page on the King’s College website.