Working with young people aged 16-25: part 2

HOPEFULLY, by the time you come to read this editorial, you will have already had the chance to explore volume 37(2) of Educational and Child Psychology, the first of these two issues on working with young people aged 16–25. The themes in the first issue covered many different parameters of post-school practice (Atkinson et al., 2015): legislation, adolescent development and learning, therapeutic intervention and supporting transitions. These themes are also revisited within this second issue, 37(3), and it is hoped that collectively this body of literature will inspire, inform, challenge and support the work of educational psychologists both in the UK and internationally. The 12 papers provide a significant research contribution to the field of post-school practice and build on earlier work highlighted in the 2009 special issue of Educational and Child Psychology titled ‘Post-school Psychological Services’. Given the recency of the 2014 Children and Families Act and the revised code of practice (Department for Education and Department of Health, 2015), the strength of response pays testament to the profession’s ability to utilise the research role of educational psychologists (EPs) (Farrell et al., 2006; Scottish Executive, 2002) to drive best practice and enlighten practitioners about how to navigate such a significant change to the profession (Atkinson et al., 2015). Some themes emerge within this issue, and also with reference to 37(2). Young people aged 16–25 are a particularly vulnerable group (Department of Health & Department for Education, 2017) and Apter et al. (2019) described the challenge for educational psychologists of responding to the ‘mental health agenda’ (p.xv) in a time of increasing pressure on other services. In this issue, papers by Boden, Jago and colleagues, and Kennedy and colleagues all focus on the social, emotional and mental health needs of young people aged 16–25, exploring the potential contribution of the EP in three different contexts, spanning individual, multiagency and systemic working. While challenges remain for EPs in working with post-16 education providers to offer mental health support to vulnerable young people (Morris & Atkinson, 2018), these articles provide foundations for developing and improving policy and practice. A key document for guiding the practice of UK EPs, particularly in terms of defining desirable outcomes for young people aged 16–25, is Preparing for Adulthood (2013), which defined the four pathways into employment, independent living, community inclusion and health. These are often used as a framework for planning and for determining which resources and support are needed to enable a young person to successfully navigate these dimensions. However, a crucial concept from this document, which is perhaps less well internalised is the ‘five key messages’ – personalise your approach, develop a shared vision, improve post-16 options and support, raise aspirations, and plan services together. While perhaps not always made explicit, we believe that the collaborative, participatory and young-person-led research detailed in many of the papers within this issue bring to life these key messages, suggesting that they have become integral to EP practice and research with post-16 students. It is also encouraging that so many of the studies are about eliciting the Educational & Child Psychology; Vol. 37 No. 3 7 Editorial views and perspectives of young people, and trying to use their lived experiences to inform practice. In terms of the four pathways, it is perhaps not surprising, given the historical context of the EP role, that many of the papers across the two editions have focused on the education/employment and health pathways. In this issue, the paper by Sam Smith arguably takes us into the realms of community inclusion, by promoting perspective-taking and teaching transferrable social skills. More generally, perhaps it is likely that the role of the EP within the promoting community inclusion and independent living pathways will become more apparent in time, once there has been more opportunity to develop links with adult service providers (MacKay & Hellier, 2009). However, maybe there is also the opportunity here to offer a challenge to practitioners and researchers to explore these pathways further, as well as the EP role within them. It is also noticeable that much of the work across the two issues takes place with individual young people, to address their needs or elicit their views. While there is evidence of whole-class work and work that informs policy, there is perhaps less evidence of collaboration with further education providers about work at a more systemic level, to build the capacity of providers to support the needs of post-16 learners, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities. So perhaps these areas present challenges or research opportunities for future studies, but for now, let us focus on the diverse and rich contribution to research of the papers within this issue. We start 37(3) with a paper by Esther Borrett and Janet Rowley in which the authors use a transformative and participatory study to identify the perspectives of post-19 students on the processes that contribute to educational resilience and which supported their successful return to education. Results identified how processes of support, connectedness, and reflecting on and growing through adversity emerged as key to educational resilience. The study highlights the use of participatory and strength-based approaches in fostering reflection and a sense of agency among the co-researchers, as well as in providing co-constructed understandings amongst this group of learners. The second paper, by Emma Parry, presents a critically discursive analysis of young people’s talk and drawings, exploring how young people shape future work identities in the context of their support networks prior to the school to work transition. Parry reports results from support networks drawn by participants and discussed during semi-structured interviews, and analysed using a critical discursive psychological approach. Findings show how young people’s construction of ‘support’ is an active and discursive process, and how the use of mapping networks may constitute a useful tool to support young people’s school to work transition, offering important suggestions to bring practitioner psychologists from school and work domains closer together. Tom Boden’s article discusses the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with an adolescent in a further education setting, who was experiencing low mood, sickness and anxiety. A retrospective single case study design was used based on data collected from outcomes and systematic feedback measures administered throughout the course of the intervention, as well as qualitative data regarding its implementation. This information was triangulated with records of session by session feedback measures to examine the relationship between the process of the CBT implementation and the young person’s idiographic responses. Findings underscore the importance of considering issues such as the role of the educational psychologist as ‘therapist’ and motivational, systemic and extra-therapeutic factors. The fourth paper by Sam Smith illustrates the use of naive realism by teachers 8 Educational & Child Psychology; Vol. 37 No. 3 Cathy Atkinson, Chiara Malagoli & Andrew Richards as a possible instrument to support wellbeing, relationships, attainment and transition to adulthood, helping young adults in considering the impact that personal motives, experiences and expectations may have in misunderstanding other’s intentions, events and the way in which reality is perceived. Specifically, the study used a critical realist approach to understand how naïve realism might support adolescents experiencing classroom conflict, through conducting thematic analysis on pre- and post-intervention focus group data. Results emerging from the post-intervention investigation showed: improved conflict resolution; ability to perspective take, empathise and self-regulate; reduced fear of negative peer evaluation and anxiety; an enhanced learning atmosphere; and transferability to the wider world – outlining the possibility for teachers to operate throughout a whole-class approach to support wellbeing, relationships, attainment and transition to adulthood. The study by Natalie Jago and colleagues investigates what young people identify as core and essential components of mental health support, adding knowledge about young people’s perspectives about mental health-related needs, in an important attempt to reduce the discrepancy between what is provided and what children and young people would want to receive. The authors advocate that the views and perspectives of young people should be incorporated into the design of appropriate mental health support to give them a voice in issues that affect them, as well as ensuring that provision is suitable. A two-round Delphi method was used, whereby a panel of young people aged 16–25 who had previously experienced a mental health difficulty rated a series of statements. Interviews with adult stakeholders were also carried out. The importance of relationships, the need for trust and confidentiality, and the need for further mental health awareness and training were key themes identified, offering an insight into what young people value from mental health support. Finally, Emma Kennedy and colleagues explore issues connected to working with young adults who experience social communication and interaction differences around mental health related issues. The authors base their work on the consideration that young experiencing mental health related difficulties and communication and interaction differences often have long-standing histories of interpersonal challenge and find relationships difficult. For these young people, conventional information-gathering assessments can be problematic and even unhelpful. This paper illustrates, via case studies, an approach to psychological assessment that prioritises collaboration with young people aged 16–25 using projective techniques, which emphasise understanding the meaning they make of their subjective experience of the world. This can potentially lead to a much richer collaborative and co-constructed process within a multi-modal and multi-informant context, which is cognisant of the young person’s views. It has been a privilege to be involved in these two issues and across the 12 papers in 37(2) and 37(3). As with the earlier ‘Post-school Psychological Services’ issue (MacKay & Hellier, 2009), while much of the research remains qualitative, exploratory and small-scale, there is a real sense of a rapidly-expanding knowledge base which we hope will guide current practice and inspire future research