E-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study age-30 follow-up: a unique resource for studying mental health, adversity & prosperity over the first 3 decades of life

CONTEXT: The twenties are an important developmental period in which individuals traditionally become fully independent of their parents, complete their education, enter the workforce/housing-market, and develop stable relationships. How individuals navigate this early adulthood period will determine their health, well-being, and economic prosperity in mid-life. Unfortunately, the twenties are also the peak age for mental health problems, which can derail these key developmental tasks. The triple shocks of Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the transition to a Net Zero future have resulted in major societal changes and economic instability - we do not know how this will affect the mental health and prospects of young adults nor what will influence whether they falter or prosper. Therefore, we propose to assess young adults at the end of their twenties to capture the factors that may influence these different outcomes so that researchers and practitioners can explore how best to support the most vulnerable young adults to thrive in these unprecedented times, and ultimately influence policy.

AIMS: This infrastructure funding bid aims to collect new data from twin participants of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study when they are 30 years old. The three decades worth of comprehensive clinical-quality data, genetic and biological stress markers, and linked administrative records will then be made freely and widely accessible to the research community.

METHOD: We will capitalise upon the E-Risk Longitudinal Twin Study, a cohort of 2232 twins born in England and Wales in 1994-1995 who have completed extensive home-visit assessments (including on mental health, social experiences, deprivation, educational attainment, and provided biological samples) at 5, 7, 10, 12 and 18 years of age (when 93% of the twins were seen). This cohort is unique as study members are spread among poor (n=900), comfortably-off (n=700), and wealthier (n=600) families, allowing researchers to compare the outcomes of these groups. For this project we propose to collect new data on the twins when they are 30 years old in 2024-2025. This will involve remote assessments by trained researchers over Zoom on mental health, adverse life experiences, human-capital-building behaviours, social and economic outcomes, and potential protective factors. We will capture their quality of life and expectations about the future and social mobility via a tool developed by young adults with lived experience of mental health issues. A nurse will visit participants at home to collect a blood sample, and we will link data to their health, welfare, education, crime, social media, and geographical records. This updated dataset will be made freely available and widely accessible to researchers across the UK and globally. We will publicise this resource through webinars, journal papers, and websites, and create training videos to support researchers to access and use this data. Additionally, our young-adult advisors will produce a priority list of questions for researchers to answer with the E-Risk dataset.

BENEFITS: This project will provide a unique resource for researchers to conduct genetically informed investigations of how mental health problems, biological factors, social inequality and adversity in the first two decades of life shape variation in mental health, pace of aging, relationships/connectedness, trust, future expectations/aspirations, and prosperity in the third decade of life. Such research will provide important insights into which factors lead to young adults faltering or prospering in this period of social and economic turmoil. These insights are crucial to inform policy, practice, and societal responses to support young adults to thrive in these unprecedented times. Increasing the number of young adults who are mentally healthy and socially mobile in mid-life could ultimately boost the UK economy and reduce strain on the NHS.

This infrastructure funding bid aims to collect new data from twin participants of the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study when they are 30 years old. This nationally representative cohort of 2,232 twin children born in 1994-1995 across England and Wales, together with their 1,116 mothers, has previously been followed up through 5 successive waves to age 18 with 93% retention. E-Risk spans the full socioeconomic spectrum: 900 young adults grew up in the most disadvantaged homes across England and Wales, 700 age peers are from comfortably-off backgrounds, and 600 from wealthier backgrounds. At age 30, we will comprehensively assess via remote face-to-face interviews the lives of these young adults, collect blood samples via nurse home visits, and link to health, welfare, education, crime, social media, and geographical records. This updated dataset will be made freely available and widely accessible to researchers across the UK and globally. It will provide a unique resource for conducting genetically informed investigations of how mental health problems, biological factors, social inequality and adversity in the first two decades of life shape variation in mental health, pace of aging, relationships/connectedness, trust, future expectations/aspirations, and prosperity in the third decade of life. E-Risk's longitudinal design helps to disentangle selection from causation by using individuals' past selves as their own controls. A compelling feature of E-Risk's twin design is that, as they grow older, twins' lives diverge in terms of their mental health, substance misuse, criminal convictions, exposure to violence, and human capital building behaviours. This twin divergence will allow researchers to compare twins in discordant pairs to test for effects of life experiences on mental health and functional outcomes while controlling by design for their rearing backgrounds and, in the case of MZ twins, all their genes, thus approaching causal inference.