About
Dr. Lucy Foulkes is a Prudence Trust Research Fellow in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. Her group’s work focuses on mental health and social development in adolescence. She is particularly interested in whether efforts intended to reduce mental health problems, such as awareness-raising campaigns and school initiatives, may inadvertently increase these problems in some individuals.
Lucy’s group’s current research projects include the following:
- Understanding how school-based mental health interventions might lead to unintended harm in adolescents, and who is most at risk
- Assessing how learning about mental health problems might change adolescents’ reporting of these symptoms
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Exploring self-diagnosis of mental health problems in adolescence and its relationship to identity development at this age
She is the author of two books, both published by Penguin Random House: What Mental Illness Really Is (2021) and Coming Of Age: How Adolescence Shapes Us (2024).
