There is considerable evidence that, both in the UK and globally, the risks of living with domestic violence and abuse (DVA) have increased consequent to Covid-19 restrictions. A range of responses at policy and practice levels have emerged. These differ across states and their take-up and impact are unknown. Capturing diverse responses and early evidence of impact can influence approaches to further lockdowns and contribute to planning for lifting restrictions and recovery. This study harnesses the global nature of policy and practice responses to DVA under Covid-19 by examining policy and practice responses in the UK; Australia; Ireland and South Africa. These have been selected as upper or upper/middle income countries with established DVA services. The Connect Centre for International Research on Interpersonal Violence and Harm will utilise its established partnerships to convene online stakeholder meetings with policy shapers and service providers in all four countries. These will generate key questions and contacts to inform a mapping and rapid review study that will collect innovative policy and practice examples together with documentary and other evidence across all four countries. Critical appraisal by an international panel of a selected sample of initiatives will enable in-depth study. The research will consider whether responses address all family members: victims, perpetrators and children. This focus will acknowledge that experience of DVA is gendered and differentiated within the family and evokes responses from different policy and practice spheres. Consultation and reporting will be iterative and embedded to achieve early and targeted knowledge transfer.

Currently, the government does not know how many of its looked after children (for example, children who have lived in foster care or children's homes) become involved with the youth justice system, or how many of those children reside in youth custody (see Hunter, 2019; Laming, 2016). It does not know how many care experienced individuals fall into criminal justice involvement and imprisonment (see Fitzpatrick et al. 2019). There is no data which outlines the ethnicity of care experienced individuals who become justice involved. The new MoJ/DfE linked administrative datasets funded by ADR UK will make it possible to analyse the intersections between ethnicity, care experience, and criminal justice involvement for the first time. This Fellowship will directly build upon my PhD research on the over-representation of looked after children and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children in the youth justice system in England and Wales. The research utilised official statistics and 27 in-depth interviews with youth justice and children's services experts. Principally, the research indicated that existing inequalities in relation to ethnicity and looked after status have intensified and that BAME looked after children experience compounded disadvantage (Hunter, 2019). However, the thesis found that much is still unknown about the intersections between ethnicity and looked after status in youth justice involvement, largely as a result of insufficient official data. The research evidence suggests that failings in the care system can both increase the risk of justice system contact and influence routes through the justice system (see Hunter, 2019). Evidence also points to frequency of incidents, as opposed to seriousness, having the greatest impact on criminal justice interventions for looked after children (see Shaw, 2014). The new linked datasets mean that it is now possible to explore when offending began and frequency of offending for care experienced individuals, as well as the role of ethnicity. Furthermore, information about care histories means that we can explore the effect of various experiences on criminal justice outcomes. Research suggests that age entering care and multiple placements may influence offending (e.g. Baskin & Sommers, 2011; Darker, Ward & Caulfield, 2008; Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000). However, no study has considered how certain features of care experience might impact upon criminal justice outcomes for different ethnic groups. The Laming Review estimated that 44 percent of all looked after children in custody come from an ethnic minority background (PRT, 2016: 65). The international research also suggests that there is a relationship between ethnicity and involvement in systems of care and justice, which warrants further investigation. Studies from the USA and Australia suggest that minority ethnic children in care have higher rates of youth justice involvement (see for example, Dollan et al. 2013; Goodkind et al., 2012; Ryan, Testa & Zhai, 2008; Stewart et al. 2008) and receive harsher outcomes than their white peers (Herz, Ryan & Bilchik, 2010). The research aims to address gaps in knowledge with regards to the intersections between ethnicity and looked after status in offending and youth/adult criminal justice involvement. It will utilise new linked MoJ/DfE data to investigate the onset and frequency of offending of care experienced individuals and their ethnic group. It will explore the impact of various care system experiences (such as number of placements) on criminal justice outcomes, and whether this varies by ethnic group. In doing so, it will produce findings which will benefit professionals and policymakers and most importantly, BAME care experienced individuals.

Early life adversities, such as child maltreatment, are all too common in the UK. Research to date suggests that such adversities can have long-term effects on health. For instance, adversities experienced in childhood and even during pregnancy may alter the way the body deals with stress throughout life. This can result in an increased risk of diseases such as heart disease, depression and type 2 diabetes. It is therefore important to investigate how early life adversities might be linked to poorer health to better inform the development of interventions. Previous research into the health effects of early life adversities has been limited in a number of ways. Firstly, many studies have added up the number of adversities a child has experienced to create a score indicating 'total stress'. Unfortunately many children who experience one adversity are also more likely to experience another. The approach of tallying adversities does not help us to understand how adversities might affect health and what we can do about this. We also don't know whether experiencing adversities at certain ages (e.g. during pregnancy) has a greater effect on health than when experienced at other points in early life. There is also little evidence on whether associations between early life adversities and health are different for boys and girls. Also different types of early life adversity are likely to have different associations with health. The aim of this project is to develop a more valid measure of early life adversity and investigate how it is related to health at different points of life. This new measure will take account of the way in which children who experience one adversity are more likely to experience another. This measure will then be applied to look at associations with health. The research will focus on mental health from childhood onwards, as well as biological markers of stress from childhood and into adulthood. The research will use three of the UK's world-renowned longitudinal studies: the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), and National Child Development Study (NCDS). These are all large studies with >15,000 participants. Each study has followed the same group of people over time. ALSPAC will be used to assess associations between early life adversities in relation to biological markers of stress from childhood into adolescence. The MCS will be used to assess whether children who experience early life adversities are more likely to have mental health problems across childhood and into adolescence. Finally, the NCDS will be used to test associations between early life adversities and both biological markers of stress in middle-age and mental health across adulthood. The proposed project will be undertaken at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL under the mentorship of Prof. Yvonne Kelly, with support from a network of experts in social statistics, biology and sociology in the International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health. Non-academic partners will be involved from the beginning of the research process. These partners include Barnardo's, the Association of Young People's Health and the Department of Health, who will be able to feed the findings of the research into their work with vulnerable families. Outputs from the project will include at least six academic papers, presentations at six conferences, a briefing note for non-academic audiences, an end of project policy seminar for academics and non-academics, and contributions to blogs and Twitter. The project also has a strong training element to enable the principal investigator to make the transition to independent researcher. In summary, this project has the potential to advance research in the field of early life adversities and health. It will be the first to provide evidence on how early life adversities increase the risk of poor health.

Our proposed project seeks to address a range of complex issues that will help young incarcerated men develop positive, healthy relationships, and prepare for future fatherhood. The aim of the Relationships and Future Fatherhood intervention is to work with the young men to provide them with the information and skills they need that will: i) empower them to make healthier sexual and reproductive health decisions; ii) promote positive consensual relationships with partners and future partners; and iii) enable critical reflection upon the roles and responsibilities of fatherhood, and to plan future fatherhood in their lives. It is anticipated this will increase the young men's sense of responsibility and well-being, and motivate them to create and maintain for their children, a more positive childhood, in relation to fathering, than they themselves experienced. This study is built around 3 work packages. In Work package 1: We will use arts-based participatory methods to support and positively engage with young men from 2 prison sites (Northern Ireland & Scotland) over the life of the project. This is so the young men's expertise can also inform the intervention content and delivery. One of the unique characteristics of the programme is that it will include an interactive video drama (IVD - film), which we will make together with the young men and a professional media production company. We will all work together to develop a script and short scenarios for the film, based on what the young incarcerated men tell us in relation to their real life experiences around sex, relationship and parenting. The film will use a 'stop-and-think' strategy. That is, at various points the film will stop and articulate a question or dilemma that invites the user to imagine how they would react, and to make some decisions, if they were in a similar situation (the interactive component). We will also develop lesson plans (worksheets and activities) from the information the young men provide that will aid learning and group discussions as part of the programme. Our participatory approach ensures that the programme reflects real-life issues that resonate with the young men. This may help make the health messages real and help them think for themselves about the importance of relationships and fatherhood. In Work Package 2: We will show the final products (IVD & Lesson Plans) to the young men and to prison and Barnardo's staff (delivery partners) in each site. We will interview them to gain their feedback on the programme to ensure it is fit-for-purpose and suitable to deliver in the two prison sites. The research team, in collaboration with the expert stakeholders group that includes representation from the Prison Services, Departments of Justice & Health, and other advocates for prisoner health and rehabilitation, will further develop the longer term sustainability of the intervention. We will then go back to the young men, prison and Barnardo's staff to check if they are happy with the intervention and assess (against progression rules) that the program is now feasible to progress to a pilot trial. The results of our inquiries will establish if the intervention is relevant, acceptable and implementable in the prison context. In Work Package 3: We will prepare for the next stage evaluation of this programme, by working through details, with trial methodology and prison experts, on how best to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. Together, we will develop a Logic Model and appropriate Research Design to take our intervention forward for effectiveness testing. So, at the end of this study we will have developed an innovative programme for a marginalised group of young men in society which will be ready to test in a feasibility and pilot trial in 2 UK prison sites.

Promoting improved understanding of how children's daily lives are influenced by the digital world that now surrounds them and how they experience family, peer and school life as a result represents a substantial challenge and opportunity relative to facilitating positive mental health and development for children and young people. Historically, researchers have emphasised the role of supportive parenting and positive school experiences (including peer relationships) as primary social environmental influences on children's mental health, with most interventions targeting family and school-based influences aimed at remediating poor mental health outcomes for children and young people. It is increasingly recognised that the digital environment constitutes a new dimension or common denominator to these traditional agencies of socialisation influence on children's mental health. Yet, little progress has been made in equipping parents, teachers and the professional agencies that work with families and schools with new knowledge that harnesses potential strengths while offering protection from substantial risks posed to children by the digital world. How do we equip parents, teachers, practitioners, policy makers and youth themselves with information, support and resources that promotes positive mental health in a contemporary (and future) digital age? Addressing this core challenge represents the primary objective of our multi-disciplinary e-Nurture network. While significant advances have been made in relation to highlighting and understanding the genetic and biological underpinnings of poor mental health and mental health disorders in recent years, it is recognised that the social environments children experience and interact with remain a substantial influence on their positive and negative mental health trajectories (even when genetic factors are considered). Three primary areas of social environmental influence on children's mental health have dominated past research and practice in this area. First, family socialisation processes, specifically parenting practices are recognised as a substantive influence on children's mental health. Second, peer influences are noted as an important influence on children's mental health. Third, school-based factors are recognised as a further influence on children's mental health and development. Increasingly, the digital environment is recognised as a factor that both infuses traditional agencies of socialisation for children and that can influence children directly. Policy makers have recently directed significant attention to the prevalence rates and support needs among children and young people who experience mental health problems. The digital environment and its potential for positive and negative influences on children's well-being, mental health and development has also received substantial research, policy and media attention. Building on this policy platform, the primary objectives of our network are to (1) explore how the digital environment has changed the ways in which children experience and interact with family, school and peer-based influences and what these changes mean for children's mental health, (2) identify how we can recognise and disentangle digital risks from opportunities when working with families, schools and professional agencies in developing intervention programmes to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people, and (3) identify how we effectively incorporate and disseminate this new knowledge to engage present and future practice models and the design and development of digital platforms and interventions aimed at promoting mental health and reducing negative mental health trajectories for young people. The network will engage a collaborative, cross sectoral approach to facilitating impacts by directly engaging academic, charity, industry, policy and front-line beneficiaries (e.g. families, parents, schools, teachers, children and young people).