ABOUT ATTUNE

Many young people live through difficult times in childhood which may have lasting effects on them.

ATTUNE is a research project using arts-based approaches to understand how difficult childhood experiences can affect adolescents (10-24yrs), what those experiences mean to the young person, how young people get through things, and what we can do to help.

ATTUNE focuses on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

ACEs are overwhelming and frightening times in childhood (up to 17 years of age). Examples are parental conflict, racism, abuse, violence, family loss or imprisonment, displacement. There are many more.

We want to understand what protects young people from being badly affected by ACEs. We want society (like schools and services) to understand how ACEs may affect young people. We want better ways of recognising young people’s strengths and where they want help.

ATTUNE runs from September 2021-2025.

We are examining the following questions: 

What are the lived experiences by which ACEs in different young people unfold to affect or protect their mental health? What is the role of place (where people live) and their identities in this?

How do young people define and explain mental health and wellbeing, and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)? 

How does neurodiversirty (such as being austistic) interact with ACEs to shape a young person’s mental health?

Do creative and participatory arts approaches help us understand ACEs and take cost-effective, and helpful actions for prevention and care interventions?

In this project, we value:

Young people’s strengths.
We respect and appreciate their willingness to tell us about their lives and what they need. See how you can get involved in Youth Voice.

Diversity.
We include young people from different places in England, with different identities (such as identifying as neurodivergent or LQBTQ+) and different backgrounds (such as refugees and people from marginalised ethnicities).

Knowledge and ideas.
From different people, such as artists, social scientists, mental health professionals and young people.

Arts-based approaches.
This means using things like drama, music and art to understand people’s lives and what matters to them.

Action.
We will work hard to ensure that the project learning is turned into support for young people.  

Our 6 Challenges

to learn more about ACEs and adolescent mental health.

  • Language challenge

    What do young people think are ACEs in their lives?

    What words and ideas do they want us to use in the project?

  • Mechanisms challenge

    How do ACEs play out in young people’s lives to affect their mental health and wellbeing?

  • Place challenge

    How does where a person lives influence ACEs and outcomes?

  • Neurodiversity challenge

    What aspects of childhood might be experienced as traumatic when the young person is Autistic or otherwise neurodivergent, and how might that be different to neurotypical children?

  • Methods challenge

    Are arts-based approaches helpful and ethical for research on ACEs with young people?

  • Action challenge

    Can we turn project learning into action by co-designing a serious game and a public mental health resource?

Working ethically

Talking about difficult things that have happened to us can be hard.

So, the Attune team commit to working in the following ways

Consulting with young people at all times about how to do this research ethically

Following ethical frameworks and standards for research

Ensuring we think about young people’s psychological safety before and after they take part in the project

Being ambitious to overcome challenges (like parental informed consent) so more diverse young people can take part

Learning about the ethical issues in doing arts-based research and how we manage these

Identifying what young people see as the ethical issue in serious games

ATTUNE is funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), specifically the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It is one of 7 projects funded by UKRI as part of their 'Adolescent Mental Health and the Developing Mind' scheme.

Research into ACEs is crucial. ACEs includes but is not limited to experiences such as  abuse, neglect, and other major stressors such as divorce, a parent’s substance abuse, or witnessing violence in the home. ACEs can increase the risk of physical and mental health problems but they do not have to lead to physical and mental health problems. When children feel supported, cared for and secure in addition to positive lifestyle factors such eating healthy food, getting regular exercise, getting a good night’s sleep, practicing mindfulness, and getting mental health support when needed, these can help turn the stress response down and can reduce the potential negative impact of ACEs.

Trauma-informed approaches have become increasingly cited in policy, and in public and health settings as a way of reducing the negative impact of ACEs and supporting mental and physical health outcomes. There are 6 principles of trauma-informed practice: safety, trust, choice, collaboration, empowerment and cultural consideration. Within our work across the ATTUNE project we embed these principles. There has been research conducted which has shown the positive impact that trauma -informed approaches can have in public sector settings; such as schools and in health settings. A study by Kataoka and colleagues (2018) identified that a tailored trauma-informed approach can be implemented by using the systems and processes already implemented in the school and building upon these to ensure that the resources developed are feasible, and sustainable for each school. Within this paper they acknowledged that workforce training is integral to a trauma-informed approach. This work package (3) of ATTUNE is focused on developing, and working with organisations so that organisations are trauma informed. It is hoped that there will be a tangible public health resource created after the completion of WP3.

Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., . . . Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Am J Prev Med, 14(4), 245-258.

Kataoka, S. H., Vona, P., Acuna, A., Jaycox, L., Escudero, P., Rojas, C., ... & Stein, B. D. (2018). Applying a trauma informed school systems approach: Examples from school community-academic partnerships. Ethnicity & disease, 28(Suppl 2), 417.

Purewal Boparai, S. K., Au, V., Koita, K., Oh, D. L., Briner, S., Burke Harris, N., & Bucci, M. (2018). Ameliorating the biological impacts of childhood adversity: A review of intervention programs. Child Abuse Negl, 81, 82-105. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.04.014

Thomas, M. S., Crosby, S., & Vanderhaar, J. (2019). Trauma-informed practices in schools across two decades: An interdisciplinary review of research. Review of Research in Education, 43(1), 422-452.

Tunno, A. M., Inscoe, A. B., Goldston, D. B., & Asarnow, J. R. (2021). A trauma-informed approach to youth suicide prevention and intervention. Evidence-Based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 6(3), 316-327.

Working definition of trauma-informed practice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk

Key reviews and papers into adverse child experiences (ACEs) and the importance of Trauma-Informed approaches