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Lucy Foulkes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lucy Foulkes
Occupation(s)Academic, writer, science communicator
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham
University College London
Academic work
DisciplinePsychology
Sub-disciplineMental health and social development in adolescence, negative consequences of mental health awareness
InstitutionsUniversity College London
University of York
University of Oxford
Main interestsAdolescent mental health
Notable worksWhat Mental Illness Really Is (…and what it isn’t)
Coming Of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us
Websitehttps://www.lucyfoulkes.com/

Lucy Foulkes is a British academic psychologist and writer, specialising in adolescent mental health and social development. She is currently a Prudence Trust Research Fellow at the Department of Experimental Psychology of the University of Oxford.[1]

Biography

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Foulkes completed her PhD (2011–2015) and postdoc (2015–2017) at the University College London, before moving to the University of York for a lectureship, and later to the University of Oxford. Besides her research at Oxford, she is also an honorary lecturer at University College London and a senior research fellow for the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families. Her main interests are adolescent mental health, the unintended effects of mental health awareness, and self-diagnosis of mental health problems and its relationship to adolescent identity development.[2][3] She also researches the effectiveness of school mental health interventions.[4][5]

She has argued that mental health awareness may in some cases increase mental health problems.[6] In a publication with Jack Andrews, she has laid out the Prevalence Inflation Hypothesis, which reasons that awareness can lead to overinterpretation of mild distress as a major mental health problem.[7][8]

Foulkes contributes to public science communication and public discourse on adolescent mental health, through media appearances, news articles, podcasts, interviews and books.[9][10] Her first book, What Mental Illness Really Is (…and what it isn’t), was released in 2021.[11] Her second book, Coming Of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us, was released in 2024.[12][13][14]

Books

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  • Foulkes, L. (2021). What Mental Illness Really Is (…and what it isn’t). Vintage.
  • Foulkes, L. (2024). Coming Of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us. Vintage.

References

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  1. ^ Barry, Ellen (2024-05-06). "Are We Talking Too Much About Mental Health?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  2. ^ Demsas, Jerusalem, "Not Everyone Needs to Go to Therapy", The Atlantic, retrieved 2024-12-01
  3. ^ Rumbelow, Helen (2024-06-18). "The psychologist who says no, our teens aren't all harmed by social media". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  4. ^ Barker, Irena (2024-06-12). "Pupil mental health: what works in schools and what doesn't". www.tes.com. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  5. ^ Foulkes, Lucy; Stringaris, Argyris (2023-02-27). "Do no harm: can school mental health interventions cause iatrogenic harm?". BJPsych Bulletin. 47 (5): 267–269. doi:10.1192/bjb.2023.9. ISSN 2056-4694. PMC 10764817. PMID 36843444.
  6. ^ Foulkes, Lucy (2024-10-14). "The problem with mental health awareness". The British Journal of Psychiatry: The Journal of Mental Science. 225 (2): 337–338. doi:10.1192/bjp.2024.106. ISSN 1472-1465. PMID 39399916.
  7. ^ Sears, Richard (2023-03-21). "Mental Health Awareness Campaigns May Actually Lead to Increases in Mental Distress". Mad In America. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  8. ^ Foulkes, Lucy; Andrews, Jack L. (2023-04-01). "Are mental health awareness efforts contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems? A call to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis". New Ideas in Psychology. 69: 101010. doi:10.1016/j.newideapsych.2023.101010. ISSN 0732-118X.
  9. ^ de Lange, Catherine (2023-09-19). "Why being more open about mental health could be making us feel worse". New Scientist. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  10. ^ Chivers, Tom (2023-04-22). "Your teens should be on the phone". Semafor. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  11. ^ Sutton, Jon (2022-03-18). "'That's not about money, that's about basic respect and compassion'". The British Psychological Society. The Psychologist. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  12. ^ Womersley, Kate (2024-06-30). "Coming of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us by Lucy Foulkes review – deep dive into the teenage mind". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-12-01.
  13. ^ The Week, UK (2024-08-01). "Coming of Age by Lucy Foulkes: 'wise and revelatory' guide to the teenage mind". The Week. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
  14. ^ McBain, Sophie (2024-07-10). "Inside the teenage mind". New Statesman. Retrieved 2024-12-02.
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