Ellen Townsend
Biographic Data
| ID | 3582458 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ellen Townsend |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ellen |
| FAMILY NAME | Townsend |
| SIGNATURE | TOWNSEND E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nottingham |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4677-5958 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
‘ Co‐Production Is Caring ’
BACKGROUND: While co-production is increasingly emphasised in youth mental health research, few studies have explored how young people themselves conceptualise and evaluate responsible and dialogic co-production. Understanding young people's perspectives is essential to ensure that participation is meaningful and protective, rather than tokenistic or exploitative. This paper offers a retrospective reflection on a 3-year UK youth mental health pro…
Exploring General Practitioners' Management of Self‐Harm in Young People
BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) are key to the frontline assessment and treatment of young people after self-harm. Young people value GP-led self-harm care, but little is known about how GPs manage young people after self-harm. AIM: This study aimed to understand the approaches of GPs to self-harm in young people and explore their perspectives on ways they might help young people avoid repeat self-harm. METHODS: We conducted semi-structur…
A comparison of temporal pathways to self-harm in young people compared to adults
Commonalities and differences in the temporal organisation of factors leading to and following self-harm were identified in young people and adult pathways which shed light on age-specific factors and possible points of intervention. This has implications for clinical support and services around approaches to positive feelings after self-harm (especially for first-ever self-harm), feeling of burdensomeness, impulsivity, and acquired capability le…
Feasibility and acceptability of experience sampling among LGBTQ+ young people with self-harmful thoughts and behaviours
This study was the first to determine whether it was feasible and acceptable to use experience sampling methods (ESM) among LGBTQ+ young people, who had current experiences of self-harm. Sixteen LGBTQ+ young people (16-25 years old) took part in the experience sampling study. This included a baseline assessment, a 7-day ESM assessment (participants were sampled six times a day using a phone app), and the option of an interview at the end of the 7…
Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young People in the UK during Lockdown (Covid-19)
This study aimed to assess the levels of mental wellbeing and potential for clinical need in a sample of UK university students aged 18–25 during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also tested the dose-response relationship between the severity of lockdown restrictions and mental wellbeing. We carried out a prospective shortitudinal study (one month between baseline and follow up) during the pandemic to do this and included 389 young people. We measured a…
Suicide trends in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic
Suicide risk and prevention during the Covid-19 pandemic
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of young people's self-harm in the context of interpersonal stressors and supports
Public perceptions of self-harm—A test of an attribution model of public discrimination
This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study applied Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan, and Kubiak’s (2003) attribution model of public discrimination toward individuals with mental ill-health to explore public perceptions of self-harm—an underresearched topic, given the size and scale of the problem of self-harm.Participants (community-based adult sample, N=355, aged 18–67 years) were presented with 1 of 10, first-person, vignettes describin…
Functional Coping Dynamics and Experiential Avoidance in a Community Sample with No Self-Injury vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Only vs. Those with Both Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviour
Although emotional avoidance may be a critical factor in the pathway from psychological distress to self-injury and/or suicidality, little is known about the relative importance of differing functional coping dynamics and experiential avoidance between people with self-injury histories of differing intent (e.g., Non-Suicidal Self-Injury only vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury plus Suicidal Behaviour; NSSI vs. NSSI + SB). A community-based survey (N = 3…
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of self-harm repetition and recovery in young adults
Six young adults (aged 19–21 years) with repeat self-harm for over 5 years were interviewed about their self-harm, why they continued and what factors might help them to stop. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified six themes: keeping self-harm private and hidden; self-harm as self-punishment; self-harm provides relief and comfort; habituation and escalation of self-harm; emotional gains and practical costs of cutting, and not believ…
The behavioral effects of frequent nightmares on objective stress tolerance
Frequent nightmares have been linked to daily distress using self-report measures. The present study investigated the impact of frequent nightmares on a stressful cognitive test requiring participants to perform additions of 2 previously displayed single digit numbers from a number series, where display latency between digits becomes increasingly short-the Paced Visual Serial Addition Task-Computerized (PVSAT-C). Participants experiencing frequen…
The unidirectional relationship of nightmares on self-harmful thoughts and behaviors
Understanding the direction of the predictive relationship between nightmares and suicidal behaviors is important to model its underlying mechanisms. We examine the direction of this relationship and the mediating role of negative affect. A fixed interval diary study obtained pre-sleep and post-sleep measures of affect, nightmares, and self-harmful thoughts and behaviors (SHTBs) from 72 university students (88.9% female). The results show predict…
Investigating the operation of the affect heuristic
Affect is of central importance in risk perception and risky decision-making, and the affect heuristic is a very influential construct developed in relation to this. We examined whether this heuristic operates at an associative level of processing as, despite much theorising, empirical evidence on this issue is lacking. We compared affective heuristic task performance with performance on established implicit association tasks. Participants (n = 1…
In two minds' - socially motivated self-harm is perceived as less serious than internally motivated
Community-based young offenders are at high risk of self-harm and unlikely to be in contact with mental health services. Semi-structured interviews with community youth justice staff and a content analysis of 50 records of self-harm not only revealed staff concerns about the impact of stigma on disclosure and service use, but also found dismissive attitudes towards socially motivated self-harm, which was equated with lower suicide risk and less e…
Expert relevance and the use of context-driven heuristic processes in risk perception
The effectiveness of a medical treatment should not predict its risk (highly effective treatments can be either safe or risky), however, people's use of heuristic shortcuts may lead them to judge a link between effectiveness and risk, typically a negative correlation. A particular concern is that experts might use such a strategy and that this is unlikely to provide an accurate judgement. This large-scale field-based experiment compares expert-re…
Youth Justice staff attitudes towards screening for self-harm
Young offenders are recognised as a high-risk group for suicidal behaviour. It is essential that the screening used to identify those at risk and refer them to mental health services is effective, especially in community settings where service utilisation is low. Staff attitudes towards screening for suicide and self-harm are likely to influence how a young offender engages with the screening process. Our study is the first to explore community y…
Social Desirability Influences on Judgements of Biotechnology Across the Dimensions of Risk, Ethicality and Naturalness
This study examined the relationship between social desirability and dimensional judgments of risk, naturalness and ethicality for biotechnological and matched natural health technologies. We examine if those who are motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way will be more likely to rate genetically‐modified (GM) technologies as more risky (less natural or ethical) than those who are not motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way. One‐…
Implicit attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) foods
Affective Influences on Risk Perceptions of, and Attitudes Toward, Genetically Modified Food
Much has been written about risk perceptions and public understanding of genetically modified (GM) food, yet little if any of the academic writings on this topic take into account the role of feelings or affect in these processes. Here, the available literature on the topic of GM food is explored in order to highlight findings consistent with the notion that feelings about GM food are important in shaping judgements about it. Using evidence emerg…
Ecological modernisation in Poland
Environmental Politics in Poland by Barbara Hicks. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp.xii + 263; index. £12 (paperback). ISBN 0231 10541 X Environmental Regulation in Transforming Economies: The Case of Poland edited by Piotr Jasinski and Helen Lawton Smith. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 1999. Pp.xiii + 372; index. £43 (hardback). ISBN 184014 0917 Environmental Protection in Transition: Economic, Legal and Socio‐Political Perspectives…
Expertise in musical sight reading
Musical sight reading on the piano represents a complex transcription task involving a series of overlapping perceptual, cognitive and motoric processes. It is suggested that skilled sight reading requires the development of efficient input skills, especially ‘pattern recognition’ skills, ‘prediction’ skills and the ability to generate and use auditory representations. The sight‐reading ability of pianists was assessed before being tested in a se…
Implicit attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) foods
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of young people's self-harm in the context of interpersonal stressors and supports
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of self-harm repetition and recovery in young adults
Six young adults (aged 19–21 years) with repeat self-harm for over 5 years were interviewed about their self-harm, why they continued and what factors might help them to stop. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified six themes: keeping self-harm private and hidden; self-harm as self-punishment; self-harm provides relief and comfort; habituation and escalation of self-harm; emotional gains and practical costs of cutting, and not believ…
The unidirectional relationship of nightmares on self-harmful thoughts and behaviors
Understanding the direction of the predictive relationship between nightmares and suicidal behaviors is important to model its underlying mechanisms. We examine the direction of this relationship and the mediating role of negative affect. A fixed interval diary study obtained pre-sleep and post-sleep measures of affect, nightmares, and self-harmful thoughts and behaviors (SHTBs) from 72 university students (88.9% female). The results show predict…
Affective Influences on Risk Perceptions of, and Attitudes Toward, Genetically Modified Food
Much has been written about risk perceptions and public understanding of genetically modified (GM) food, yet little if any of the academic writings on this topic take into account the role of feelings or affect in these processes. Here, the available literature on the topic of GM food is explored in order to highlight findings consistent with the notion that feelings about GM food are important in shaping judgements about it. Using evidence emerg…
Investigating the operation of the affect heuristic
Affect is of central importance in risk perception and risky decision-making, and the affect heuristic is a very influential construct developed in relation to this. We examined whether this heuristic operates at an associative level of processing as, despite much theorising, empirical evidence on this issue is lacking. We compared affective heuristic task performance with performance on established implicit association tasks. Participants (n = 1…
Expert relevance and the use of context-driven heuristic processes in risk perception
The effectiveness of a medical treatment should not predict its risk (highly effective treatments can be either safe or risky), however, people's use of heuristic shortcuts may lead them to judge a link between effectiveness and risk, typically a negative correlation. A particular concern is that experts might use such a strategy and that this is unlikely to provide an accurate judgement. This large-scale field-based experiment compares expert-re…
In two minds' - socially motivated self-harm is perceived as less serious than internally motivated
Community-based young offenders are at high risk of self-harm and unlikely to be in contact with mental health services. Semi-structured interviews with community youth justice staff and a content analysis of 50 records of self-harm not only revealed staff concerns about the impact of stigma on disclosure and service use, but also found dismissive attitudes towards socially motivated self-harm, which was equated with lower suicide risk and less e…
Youth Justice staff attitudes towards screening for self-harm
Young offenders are recognised as a high-risk group for suicidal behaviour. It is essential that the screening used to identify those at risk and refer them to mental health services is effective, especially in community settings where service utilisation is low. Staff attitudes towards screening for suicide and self-harm are likely to influence how a young offender engages with the screening process. Our study is the first to explore community y…
Social Desirability Influences on Judgements of Biotechnology Across the Dimensions of Risk, Ethicality and Naturalness
This study examined the relationship between social desirability and dimensional judgments of risk, naturalness and ethicality for biotechnological and matched natural health technologies. We examine if those who are motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way will be more likely to rate genetically‐modified (GM) technologies as more risky (less natural or ethical) than those who are not motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way. One‐…
Expertise in musical sight reading
Musical sight reading on the piano represents a complex transcription task involving a series of overlapping perceptual, cognitive and motoric processes. It is suggested that skilled sight reading requires the development of efficient input skills, especially ‘pattern recognition’ skills, ‘prediction’ skills and the ability to generate and use auditory representations. The sight‐reading ability of pianists was assessed before being tested in a se…
Ecological modernisation in Poland
Environmental Politics in Poland by Barbara Hicks. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pp.xii + 263; index. £12 (paperback). ISBN 0231 10541 X Environmental Regulation in Transforming Economies: The Case of Poland edited by Piotr Jasinski and Helen Lawton Smith. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 1999. Pp.xiii + 372; index. £43 (hardback). ISBN 184014 0917 Environmental Protection in Transition: Economic, Legal and Socio‐Political Perspectives…
Affective Influences on Risk Perceptions of, and Attitudes Toward, Genetically Modified Food
Much has been written about risk perceptions and public understanding of genetically modified (GM) food, yet little if any of the academic writings on this topic take into account the role of feelings or affect in these processes. Here, the available literature on the topic of GM food is explored in order to highlight findings consistent with the notion that feelings about GM food are important in shaping judgements about it. Using evidence emerg…
Implicit attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) foods
Social Desirability Influences on Judgements of Biotechnology Across the Dimensions of Risk, Ethicality and Naturalness
This study examined the relationship between social desirability and dimensional judgments of risk, naturalness and ethicality for biotechnological and matched natural health technologies. We examine if those who are motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way will be more likely to rate genetically‐modified (GM) technologies as more risky (less natural or ethical) than those who are not motivated to respond in a socially‐desirable way. One‐…
Expert relevance and the use of context-driven heuristic processes in risk perception
The effectiveness of a medical treatment should not predict its risk (highly effective treatments can be either safe or risky), however, people's use of heuristic shortcuts may lead them to judge a link between effectiveness and risk, typically a negative correlation. A particular concern is that experts might use such a strategy and that this is unlikely to provide an accurate judgement. This large-scale field-based experiment compares expert-re…
Youth Justice staff attitudes towards screening for self-harm
Young offenders are recognised as a high-risk group for suicidal behaviour. It is essential that the screening used to identify those at risk and refer them to mental health services is effective, especially in community settings where service utilisation is low. Staff attitudes towards screening for suicide and self-harm are likely to influence how a young offender engages with the screening process. Our study is the first to explore community y…
Investigating the operation of the affect heuristic
Affect is of central importance in risk perception and risky decision-making, and the affect heuristic is a very influential construct developed in relation to this. We examined whether this heuristic operates at an associative level of processing as, despite much theorising, empirical evidence on this issue is lacking. We compared affective heuristic task performance with performance on established implicit association tasks. Participants (n = 1…
In two minds' - socially motivated self-harm is perceived as less serious than internally motivated
Community-based young offenders are at high risk of self-harm and unlikely to be in contact with mental health services. Semi-structured interviews with community youth justice staff and a content analysis of 50 records of self-harm not only revealed staff concerns about the impact of stigma on disclosure and service use, but also found dismissive attitudes towards socially motivated self-harm, which was equated with lower suicide risk and less e…
The unidirectional relationship of nightmares on self-harmful thoughts and behaviors
Understanding the direction of the predictive relationship between nightmares and suicidal behaviors is important to model its underlying mechanisms. We examine the direction of this relationship and the mediating role of negative affect. A fixed interval diary study obtained pre-sleep and post-sleep measures of affect, nightmares, and self-harmful thoughts and behaviors (SHTBs) from 72 university students (88.9% female). The results show predict…
The behavioral effects of frequent nightmares on objective stress tolerance
Frequent nightmares have been linked to daily distress using self-report measures. The present study investigated the impact of frequent nightmares on a stressful cognitive test requiring participants to perform additions of 2 previously displayed single digit numbers from a number series, where display latency between digits becomes increasingly short-the Paced Visual Serial Addition Task-Computerized (PVSAT-C). Participants experiencing frequen…
Public perceptions of self-harm—A test of an attribution model of public discrimination
This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study applied Corrigan, Markowitz, Watson, Rowan, and Kubiak’s (2003) attribution model of public discrimination toward individuals with mental ill-health to explore public perceptions of self-harm—an underresearched topic, given the size and scale of the problem of self-harm.Participants (community-based adult sample, N=355, aged 18–67 years) were presented with 1 of 10, first-person, vignettes describin…
Functional Coping Dynamics and Experiential Avoidance in a Community Sample with No Self-Injury vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Only vs. Those with Both Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicidal Behaviour
Although emotional avoidance may be a critical factor in the pathway from psychological distress to self-injury and/or suicidality, little is known about the relative importance of differing functional coping dynamics and experiential avoidance between people with self-injury histories of differing intent (e.g., Non-Suicidal Self-Injury only vs. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury plus Suicidal Behaviour; NSSI vs. NSSI + SB). A community-based survey (N = 3…
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of self-harm repetition and recovery in young adults
Six young adults (aged 19–21 years) with repeat self-harm for over 5 years were interviewed about their self-harm, why they continued and what factors might help them to stop. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified six themes: keeping self-harm private and hidden; self-harm as self-punishment; self-harm provides relief and comfort; habituation and escalation of self-harm; emotional gains and practical costs of cutting, and not believ…
An interpretative phenomenological analysis of young people's self-harm in the context of interpersonal stressors and supports
Suicide risk and prevention during the Covid-19 pandemic
Suicide trends in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic
Feasibility and acceptability of experience sampling among LGBTQ+ young people with self-harmful thoughts and behaviours
This study was the first to determine whether it was feasible and acceptable to use experience sampling methods (ESM) among LGBTQ+ young people, who had current experiences of self-harm. Sixteen LGBTQ+ young people (16-25 years old) took part in the experience sampling study. This included a baseline assessment, a 7-day ESM assessment (participants were sampled six times a day using a phone app), and the option of an interview at the end of the 7…
Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young People in the UK during Lockdown (Covid-19)
This study aimed to assess the levels of mental wellbeing and potential for clinical need in a sample of UK university students aged 18–25 during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also tested the dose-response relationship between the severity of lockdown restrictions and mental wellbeing. We carried out a prospective shortitudinal study (one month between baseline and follow up) during the pandemic to do this and included 389 young people. We measured a…
A comparison of temporal pathways to self-harm in young people compared to adults
Commonalities and differences in the temporal organisation of factors leading to and following self-harm were identified in young people and adult pathways which shed light on age-specific factors and possible points of intervention. This has implications for clinical support and services around approaches to positive feelings after self-harm (especially for first-ever self-harm), feeling of burdensomeness, impulsivity, and acquired capability le…
Exploring General Practitioners' Management of Self‐Harm in Young People
BACKGROUND: General practitioners (GPs) are key to the frontline assessment and treatment of young people after self-harm. Young people value GP-led self-harm care, but little is known about how GPs manage young people after self-harm. AIM: This study aimed to understand the approaches of GPs to self-harm in young people and explore their perspectives on ways they might help young people avoid repeat self-harm. METHODS: We conducted semi-structur…
‘ Co‐Production Is Caring ’
BACKGROUND: While co-production is increasingly emphasised in youth mental health research, few studies have explored how young people themselves conceptualise and evaluate responsible and dialogic co-production. Understanding young people's perspectives is essential to ensure that participation is meaningful and protective, rather than tokenistic or exploitative. This paper offers a retrospective reflection on a 3-year UK youth mental health pro…
Psychology (19 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies (10 works) · Clinical Psychology (9 works) · Harm (8 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Psychiatry (8 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works) · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development (6 works)