'Mind the Kids': an ACAMH podcast

⚠️ Content warning: This episode discusses non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality in adolescents. Some listeners may find this content upsetting. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional or crisis service in your area.
Learn more at 'Understanding and Responding to Self-Harm: Latest Evidence and Clinical Practice'
Can debt and financial stress really affect a teenager's mental health? In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Clara Faria — an academic clinical fellow in child psychiatry — sits down with researchers Nita de Neve-Enthoven and Susan Ravensbergen, PhD candidates in the Department of Psychiatry at Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, to unpack their new study on debt, experienced financial scarcity, and their links to non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality in adolescents at risk for psychopathology.
Drawing on data from the iBerry study — a landmark longitudinal cohort following over 1,000 adolescents for more than a decade — Nita and Susan reveal some striking findings: teens carrying debt were nearly twice as likely to report suicidality compared to their peers, yet debt showed no clear association with non-suicidal self-injury. Meanwhile, experienced financial scarcity (how young people subjectively feel about their financial situation) was linked to both NSSI and suicidality — even after controlling for household income.
The conversation explores:
- Why adolescent financial stress has been so understudied compared to adult populations
- How researchers partnered with Nibud (the Dutch National Institute for Family Finance Information) to measure both objective debt and subjective financial scarcity
- Why student loans — the most common type of debt in the study — still carried mental health risks, despite being socially "acceptable" debt
- The cost-of-living and youth unemployment pressures facing young people in the UK and the Netherlands today
- What these findings mean for clinicians, parents, and policymakers around financial literacy, debt prevention, and youth mental health screening
- Why simply asking "how are you doing financially?" could be a powerful, low-cost prevention tool
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Read the CAMH journal paper ‘Debts and experienced financial scarcity: associations with nonsuicidal self-injury and suicidality in adolescents at risk for psychopathology'
https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.70065
Susan J. Ravensbergen, Nita G.M. de Neve-Enthoven, Diandra C. Bouter, Wilco W. van Dijk, Witte J.G. Hoogendijk, Nina H. Grootendorst-van Mil
First published: 22 January 2026
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Why do mentally healthy teenagers tend to remember the good times more vividly than the bad — and what happens to that "positive memory bias" in young people at risk of depression, anxiety or PTSD?
In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Clara Faria, academic clinical fellow in child psychiatry, University of Cambridge, talks with Alice Roe, a PhD candidate at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU), University of Cambridge.
They discuss Alice's new paper, 'Remembering the bad times: Autobiographical memory fluency, specificity, and fading affect bias in adolescents at clinical risk of affective disorder', published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (JCPP), which used a novel task called the Good Day-Bad Day task with 318 adolescents aged 16-18 to explore how memory shapes mental health risk.
In this conversation on autobiographical memory, adolescent mental health and cognitive risk markers for depression, anxiety and PTSD, Clara and Alice unpack:

What autobiographical memory actually is, and why it plays such a central role in identity, wellbeing and mental health during adolescence

The 'fading affect bias' — the well-documented tendency for positive memories to keep their emotional glow longer than negative ones — and why this may help protect our mental health

What the Good Day-Bad Day task involves, and why the researchers chose it over the traditional cued-word memory test

The key finding: teens at clinical risk of affective disorder didn't show more negative memories — they showed a reduced positive bias, recalling fewer good-day memories and holding onto more bad-day memories

Why the fading affect bias was still present but significantly weaker in the at-risk group, echoing prior findings in adults with depression

The surprising result that memory specificity — usually reduced in at-risk and clinical populations — showed no difference between groups in this community sample

What these findings could mean for future memory-based interventions, including whether positive memory recall can be trained or strengthened in therapeutic work

Why longitudinal research is needed to see whether these memory patterns can predict who goes on to develop a mental health problem

📄 Read the full paper: Roe, A., Gormley, S., Stephens, E., Mapleston, E., & Dalgleish, T. (2026). Remembering the bad times: Autobiographical memory fluency, specificity, and fading affect bias in adolescents at clinical risk of affective disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.70191

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 #MindTheKids #ACAMH #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #AutobiographicalMemory #FadingAffectBias #MemorySpecificity #TeenMentalHealth #DepressionResearch #AnxietyResearch #PTSD #CognitivePsychology #JCPP #ChildPsychiatry #ClinicalPsychology

What happens when young people diagnose their own mental health conditions? How are clinicians responding to a growing trend shaped by social media, online communities, and increasing mental health awareness?
In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Dr Clara Faria, Academic Clinical Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, speaks with Katie Cunningham-Rowe from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, about her qualitative study exploring clinicians' perspectives on adolescent self-diagnosis of mental health disorders.
Together they discuss the complex realities behind self-diagnosis in young people, including the influence of TikTok and online mental health communities, the role of identity formation during adolescence, and the potential benefits and risks of adopting diagnostic labels without formal assessment.
The conversation explores:
🔹 Why self-diagnosis has become increasingly common among adolescents
🔹 The impact of social media algorithms on mental health identities
🔹 How online communities can provide validation, belonging, and support
🔹 Concerns about misinformation and diagnostic accuracy
🔹 The relationship between self-diagnosis and help-seeking behaviour
🔹 Why clinicians view self-diagnosis as valuable therapeutic material
🔹 When diagnostic labels can become restrictive or central to identity
🔹 The importance of empathy, curiosity, and nuanced clinical practice
🔹 Future research on adolescent self-diagnosis and mental health care
Katie highlights that self-diagnosis is rarely a simple issue. While clinicians identified potential risks, they also recognised that young people often turn to diagnostic labels in an attempt to understand genuine distress, seek support, and make sense of their experiences.
This thoughtful discussion offers important insights for clinicians, researchers, educators, students, and anyone interested in adolescent mental health in the digital age.
📖 Read the paper: 'Adolescent Self-Diagnosis of Mental Health Disorders: A Qualitative Study of Mental Health Clinicians' Perspectives'  Katie Cunningham-Rowe, Lucy Foulkes
First published: 15 July 2026
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#MindTheKids #MentalHealth #SelfDiagnosis #AdolescentMentalHealth #CAMHS #YouthMentalHealth #ChildPsychiatry #ClinicalPsychology #TikTokMentalHealth #MentalHealthResearch #ACAMH #KatieCunninghamRowe #ClaraFaria #PsychologyPodcast #ChildAndAdolescentMentalHealth

Why are so many teenagers worried about their weight — and why do so few know where to turn for support?
In this episode of Mind the Kids, host Clara Faria, academic clinical fellow in child psychiatry, University of Cambridge,  talks with Dr. Melissa Little, who recently completed her doctorate at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, and works clinically as a paediatric dietitian.
They discuss Dr. Little's new paper, 'Weight concern and desire for weight loss support in adolescents: Results from a large cross-sectional school survey', published in JCPP Advances, which analysed data from over 34,000 young people aged 11–18 taking part in the 2023 OxWell Student Survey.
In this conversation on adolescent mental health, body image and weight-related distress, Clara and Melissa unpack:
- Why 41% of adolescents report some level of weight concern — and why it isn't just girls: 1 in 4 boys are affected too
- Why gender-diverse young people have up to eight times higher odds of weight or shape concern than boys, according to the published findings
- Why weight concern doesn't reliably track with BMI — and what that means for who gets excluded from weight management services
- Why 1 in 3 young people want weight-related support, far beyond the capacity of current obesity and weight clinics
- The silos between mental health services and obesity/weight management services, and why disordered eating is too often used as an exclusion criterion rather than a reason to help
- How social media, the UK's under-16s social media ban, and "wild west" online weight-loss content are shaping teen body image
- Practical, non-stigmatising ways for parents, GPs, teachers and clinicians to talk about weight with young people — including why it's best to let them raise the topic first
- What anonymous, digital-first support (chat-based, app-based, or social-media-native) could look like for teens too ashamed to ask for help face-to-face
📄 Read the full paper: Little, M., Fazel, M., Jebb, S. A., Wane, S., OxWell Study Team, & Aveyard, P. (2026). Weight concern and desire for weight loss support in adolescents: Results from a large cross-sectional school survey. JCPP Advances, https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcv2.70124
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#MindTheKids #ACAMH #ChildMentalHealth #AdolescentMentalHealth #WeightConcern #BodyImage #TeenMentalHealth #EatingDisorders #PaediatricObesity #YouthMentalHealth #OxWellSurvey #CAMHS #ChildPsychiatry #JCPPAdvances

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Is developmental language disorder linked to law breaking?
In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr. Jane Gilmour (Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Child Development Programme Director at UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (Professor of Psychology at the University of York) flip the format — Umar takes the guest seat to discuss his own new paper on developmental language disorder (DLD) and youth offending.
They dig into 'Developmental Language Disorder and Offending: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study with Linked Education and Crime Data', published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, by Megan Frith, Hannah Hobson, Jo Hutchinson, Anna Leyland, Nathan Hughes and Umar Toseeb. The study used the ALSPAC birth cohort (the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), linking childhood language assessments at ages 7-9 with school records and police crime data on offences committed between ages 13 and 29.
In this conversation on developmental language disorder, special educational needs, school exclusion and the youth justice system, Jane and Umar unpack:
- What developmental language disorder (DLD) actually is — a "hidden disability" affecting 7-9% of children (roughly two per classroom) — and how it differs from normal language delay or being a "late talker"
- Why DLD is diagnosed in the absence of autism, sensory impairment or physical causes, and how it overlaps with (but isn't the same as) social communication difficulties
- The headline finding: young people with DLD are significantly more likely (74% higher odds) to have a recorded offence — arrested, cautioned or charged — than those without DLD
- Why school suspension is a key mediator linking DLD to offending, supporting a "school-to-prison pipeline" hypothesis
- Why being formally identified with special educational needs (SEN) at school did not reduce the risk of offending
- Why DLD did not affect how young people were treated once in the justice system — no difference in caution vs. charge, or in reoffending rates
- The idea that "behaviour is communication" — how unrecognised language difficulties in the classroom can be misread as defiance, disengagement or bad behaviour
- Why awareness of DLD lags far behind autism, ADHD and dyslexia, and what that means for police, teachers, and the "appropriate adult" safeguarding system
- Practical implications for schools considering suspension as a response to persistent disruptive behaviour
📄 Read the full paper: Frith, M. L., Hobson, H., Hutchinson, J., Leyland, A. F., Hughes, N., & Toseeb, U. (2026). Developmental Language Disorder and Offending: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study with Linked Education and Crime Data. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. DOI: 10.1111/jcpp.70182
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