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The vast majority of social media posts directed towards England's winning Euro 2022 football players across the tournament were positive, an analysis by Cardiff University's HateLab has found. The study of 78,141 posts on Twitter, Reddit and 4Chan identified more than 50,000 positive posts - roughly one "hate" post for every 125 "hope" posts - while 380 were classed as sexist or homophobic.

Gene therapy has partly restored the function of the retina's cone receptors in two children who were born completely colourblind, reports a new study led by UCL researchers. The findings, published in Brain , provide hope that the treatment is effectively activating previously dormant communication pathways between the retina and the brain, drawing on the plastic nature of the developing adolescent brain.

Women who experience racial discrimination on the basis of their ethnicity, race or nationality are at increased risk of giving birth prematurely, according to a team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge. Racial discrimination impacts the health of racialised communities not only in direct and intentional ways, but also in how it shapes an individual's experiences, opportunities, and quality of life Jeenan Kaiser The findings add to growing evidence that racial discrimination is a risk factor for poor health outcomes, say the researchers.

A new social network analysis of female wild red deer on the Isle of Rum in Scotland shows that ageing deer tend to adopt a life of solitude in their advancing years. A multidisciplinary team led by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh has found that wild red deer become less sociable with age.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr David Bann and Liam Wright (IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society) and Neil Davies (University of Bristol) explore the connection between genetics and social background and body weight in adulthood. There's long been a debate about whether genetics or the environment people are raised in is the biggest cause of obesity.

Adolescents are over three times more vulnerable to developing a cannabis addiction than adults, but may not be at increased risk of other mental health problems related to the drug, finds a new study led by UCL and King's College London researchers. The study, published today in the Journal of Psychopharmacology , found that adolescents who used cannabis were no more likely to have higher levels of subclinical depression or anxiety than adults who use cannabis, nor were they more vulnerable than adult users to the associations with psychotic-like symptoms.

Children conceived through medically assisted reproduction (MAR) fare better at school but are slightly more likely to have mental health problems by their late teens, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL and the University of Helsinki. The researchers say the correlation for mental health is  only  observed when the social demographics of children's families are taken into account, and that there is  no  evidence to suggest the MAR treatment itself is the source of association for mental health.

Perinatal mood disorders such as postnatal depression and perinatal anxiety, may affect both mothers and fathers simultaneously, finds a new systematic review and meta-analysis* led by UCL researchers. Around 3 in 100 couples (3.18%) were found to both suffer from late postnatal depression, which occurs three to 12 months after a child is born.

As the climate crisis leads to more intense and more frequent extreme weather and climate-related events, this in turn risks increasing the amount of gender-based violence experienced by women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities, say researchers.

Social isolation is linked to lower brain volume in areas related to cognition and a higher risk of dementia, according to research published today in Neurology. The study found that social isolation was linked to a 26% increased risk of dementia, separately from risk factors like depression and loneliness.

The blog post investigates if we should be spending more time talking about methods. Human Geographers are playing a key role in developing creative, collaborative methodologies that enable researchers to attend to a range of social, political, and environmental phenomena. But methods are not only important in witnessing global challenges or as tools to gather data.

Feeling a sense of purpose or meaning in life is associated with a lower risk of dementia years later, finds a new review of evidence led by UCL researchers. The academics were looking at whether positive psychological constructs, which also included positive mood and optimism and found that purpose and meaning in life were the key factors consistently associated with reduced risk, they report in Ageing Research Reviews .

Older people who were shielding throughout the pandemic were nearly twice as likely to experience depressive symptoms compared to those who were not, even after accounting for loneliness and having fewer social contacts, according to researchers from UCL. The study from UCL and the University of Manchester is published today in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Teenagers who take part in arts and cultural activities, such as dance, drama, reading and going to concerts, are less likely to engage in antisocial and criminalised behaviour up to two years later, according to a new study by UCL and University of Florida researchers. For the peer-reviewed study, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence (JOYO), researchers looked at data from more than 25,000 teenagers in the United States who had filled out questionnaires over several years.

Social workers in areas of Wales with decreasing care rates feel more confident in the approach of their local authority, a report has found. The study, from the Wales Centre for Public Policy (WCPP) and the Children's Social Care Research and Development Centre (CASCADE), sought the views of 792 social workers and care leaders.

Sexual harassment is common in Scotland's secondary schools, however the ways in which students distinguish between what's acceptable or not is nuanced, according to new research. The study - led by the University of Glasgow's MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, and published in PLOS ONE - suggests that school-based strategies to tackle sexual harassment must engage with the complexity of the issue, as many participants in the study, aged between 13-17, expressed uncertainty regarding the experience or acceptability of certain behaviours.

A new study led by the University of Birmingham will evaluate the effectiveness of an online training programme for improving social workers' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs when working with LGBTQ+ young people. In conjunction with What Works for Children's Social Care , the study will determine the effectiveness of LGBTQ+ diversity training for social workers and its impact on practice with LGBTQ+ young people.

A significant number of people who died by suicide were likely autistic, but undiagnosed, according to new research that highlights the urgent need for earlier diagnosis and tailored support for suicide prevention.

People who identify as both LGBTQ+ and an ethnic minority have described their lived experiences of racism and homophobia in a new report co-led by researchers from UCL. The experiences of 29 individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ from ethnic minorities in the UK have been published today. The report, funded by UCL, is the UK's first major study to analyse the lived experiences of people living in the intersection of these minority identities.

Up to half of children worldwide, and up to a third of children in the UK, consume energy drinks every week, finds research led by UCL and The University of York. The study, published in the BMJ Open, found evidence that children who drank energy drinks on five or more days per week were likely to have low psychological, physical, educational and overall well-being such as headaches, sleep problems, alcohol use, smoking, irritability and school exclusion.