Dr Gemma Knowles
Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology and Youth Mental Health
Research interests
- Mental Health
- Psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience
Biography
Gemma Knowles is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Health Service & Population Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London.
Gemma is a social epidemiologist specialising in youth mental health. She joined King's College London in 2015, initially as a postdoctoral researcher coordinating REACH, a youth mental health cohort study, then as Research Fellow at the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, before establishing her own research programme.
Gemma is principal investigator of Bridging Divides (‘kakinemu’ in Japanese), a five-year Wellcome Trust-funded project working in partnership with young people to understand the causes of gender inequalities in teenage mental health in London and Tokyo, with a particular focus on sexism and misogyny. She also holds the Medical Research Foundation's Emerging Leaders Prize in Youth Mental Health, and is founder and head of the #YouthEpiCentre research group within the Health Service and Population Research Department.
Before joining King's, Gemma completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham, working on a primary-school based obesity prevention study, and later coordinated a secondary school cohort study of mobile phone use and cognitive development at Imperial College London.
Gemma is a strong believer in the value and power of involving young people in the design and delivery of research ("nothing about us without us") and is committed to pushing the boundaries of youth involvement in epidemiological research.
She supervises PhD students researching the social determinants of youth mental health, with meaningful youth involvement embedded throughout their projects.
Research interests
- Social Epidemiology
- Youth Mental Health
- Gender Inequality
- Coproduction and Youth Involvement in Research
- Social Injustice
- Quant Methods
Expertise and public engagement
- MRF ‘On Our Minds’ series
- MOPAC consultation on Policing in London
- World We Got This: Adolescent mental health in a time of COVID
- Our Sick Society: Social Class, Poverty, and Young People's Mental Health
- Our Sick Society: Covid-19 and Mental Health: What about the teachers?
- ACAMH In-Conversation Podcast Series
- ERC Inspire Award (shortlist)
- REACH public engagement programme
Research
Resilience, Ethnicity & AdolesCent Mental Health
REACH aims to understand the impact that social circumstances and experiences have on young people’s mental health as they grow up in south London
Project status: Completed
Social change, transitions and youth mental health
Investigating whether widespread social changes are linked to the rise in mental health problems among young people.
Project status: Ongoing
The Schools Training to Enhance support for LGBT+ young People (STEP) Study
The STEP Study investigates what training is available to schools to support LGBT+ young people and how this training can be improved.
Project status: Ongoing
Structural and life course determinants of LGBTQ+ health inequalities
Leveraging King’s data and expertise to enhance understanding and move into action.
Project status: Ongoing
Society and Mental Health Research Group
Our group primarily focuses on how social contexts, interactions and experiences shape the occurrence, outcome, and management of mental health problems.
Intergenerational transmission of mental health: understanding the role of family interactions inclusive of fathers and translation into family-based interventions
To understand the factors that accentuate intergenerational transmission of mental health including fathers and explore parenting interventions.
Project status: Ongoing
LGBTQ Mental Health Research Group
Investigating factors contributing to the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual and gender minority individuals.
News
King's researchers win Medical Research Foundation Emerging Leaders Prizes
The Medical Research Foundation have announced King’s researchers Dr Gemma Knowles, Dr Maria Rogdaki and Dr Josefien Breedvelt as three of the four winners of...
Gender gap in teenage depression is twice as large in London than in Tokyo, new study finds
Research led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has tracked depressive symptoms in 7100 young people...
New Wellcome funding to understand anxiety and trauma
Dr Lauren Heathcote and Dr Gemma Knowles have been awarded Wellcome Mental Health Awards for research to investigate the mechanisms underlying anxiety and...
A Mentally Healthier Nation: support from ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health
The new ‘A Mentally Healthier Nation’ report by the Centre for Mental Health has called for cross-cutting policy to increasing mental health. The report’s...
REACH team recognised for work improving adolescent mental health
A team of King’s researchers generating new information on the impact of social factors on young people’s mental health has been shortlisted for a Public...
Increase in mental distress among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
New research from ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London...
Child and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
For Children’s Mental Health Week, we highlight some of IoPPN's research into the impact of COVID-19 on child and adolescent mental health, and potential...
New policy briefing calls for action to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of young people
Researchers at King’s College London and Oxford University have outlined a series of recommendations to address anticipated short- and long-term challenges...
REACH Study on inner-city London schools highlights need for localised support for youth mental health
Dr Gemma Knowles, Research Associate, and Professor Craig Morgan, Professor of Social Epidemiology, lead the REACH Project, based at the ESRC Centre for...
Researchers work with young people to understand mental health challenges and the impacts of lockdown
In the latest episode of the WORLD: we got this podcast, Dr Gemma Knowles talks about the ground-breaking research being undertaken to understand and support...
Events
Turning Points: Black and working-class journeys into health research
Turning Points: Black and working-class journeys into health research
Young voices: a collaborative event sharing findings from the REACH study
The REACH study presents key emerging findings in a collaborative event co-produced by young people.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
Unequal pressures: how disadvantage shaped young people's education and wellbeing during the pandemic and why it still matters
School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just disrupt learning, they revealed and intensified deep inequalities that continue to shape young...
Pandemic impacts on mental health of young people: the REACH study
The REACH Study have published a series of reports on the impact of Covid-19 on adolescent mental health.
How has COVID-19 impacted children and young people?
Since children and adolescents were considered a low health risk, they were far from a priority in the early stages of the pandemic. But with the disruption...
Youth Mental Health and Covid-19: How can we build back fairer?
In 2021, a Policy Lab was held as the culminating event of a jointly run conference exploring the impacts of COVID-19 and related responses on the mental...
Research
Resilience, Ethnicity & AdolesCent Mental Health
REACH aims to understand the impact that social circumstances and experiences have on young people’s mental health as they grow up in south London
Project status: Completed
Social change, transitions and youth mental health
Investigating whether widespread social changes are linked to the rise in mental health problems among young people.
Project status: Ongoing
The Schools Training to Enhance support for LGBT+ young People (STEP) Study
The STEP Study investigates what training is available to schools to support LGBT+ young people and how this training can be improved.
Project status: Ongoing
Structural and life course determinants of LGBTQ+ health inequalities
Leveraging King’s data and expertise to enhance understanding and move into action.
Project status: Ongoing
Society and Mental Health Research Group
Our group primarily focuses on how social contexts, interactions and experiences shape the occurrence, outcome, and management of mental health problems.
Intergenerational transmission of mental health: understanding the role of family interactions inclusive of fathers and translation into family-based interventions
To understand the factors that accentuate intergenerational transmission of mental health including fathers and explore parenting interventions.
Project status: Ongoing
LGBTQ Mental Health Research Group
Investigating factors contributing to the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other sexual and gender minority individuals.
News
King's researchers win Medical Research Foundation Emerging Leaders Prizes
The Medical Research Foundation have announced King’s researchers Dr Gemma Knowles, Dr Maria Rogdaki and Dr Josefien Breedvelt as three of the four winners of...
Gender gap in teenage depression is twice as large in London than in Tokyo, new study finds
Research led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has tracked depressive symptoms in 7100 young people...
New Wellcome funding to understand anxiety and trauma
Dr Lauren Heathcote and Dr Gemma Knowles have been awarded Wellcome Mental Health Awards for research to investigate the mechanisms underlying anxiety and...
A Mentally Healthier Nation: support from ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health
The new ‘A Mentally Healthier Nation’ report by the Centre for Mental Health has called for cross-cutting policy to increasing mental health. The report’s...
REACH team recognised for work improving adolescent mental health
A team of King’s researchers generating new information on the impact of social factors on young people’s mental health has been shortlisted for a Public...
Increase in mental distress among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic
New research from ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health (CSMH) and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London...
Child and adolescent mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic
For Children’s Mental Health Week, we highlight some of IoPPN's research into the impact of COVID-19 on child and adolescent mental health, and potential...
New policy briefing calls for action to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health of young people
Researchers at King’s College London and Oxford University have outlined a series of recommendations to address anticipated short- and long-term challenges...
REACH Study on inner-city London schools highlights need for localised support for youth mental health
Dr Gemma Knowles, Research Associate, and Professor Craig Morgan, Professor of Social Epidemiology, lead the REACH Project, based at the ESRC Centre for...
Researchers work with young people to understand mental health challenges and the impacts of lockdown
In the latest episode of the WORLD: we got this podcast, Dr Gemma Knowles talks about the ground-breaking research being undertaken to understand and support...
Events
Turning Points: Black and working-class journeys into health research
Turning Points: Black and working-class journeys into health research
Young voices: a collaborative event sharing findings from the REACH study
The REACH study presents key emerging findings in a collaborative event co-produced by young people.
Please note: this event has passed.
Features
Unequal pressures: how disadvantage shaped young people's education and wellbeing during the pandemic and why it still matters
School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t just disrupt learning, they revealed and intensified deep inequalities that continue to shape young...
Pandemic impacts on mental health of young people: the REACH study
The REACH Study have published a series of reports on the impact of Covid-19 on adolescent mental health.
How has COVID-19 impacted children and young people?
Since children and adolescents were considered a low health risk, they were far from a priority in the early stages of the pandemic. But with the disruption...
Youth Mental Health and Covid-19: How can we build back fairer?
In 2021, a Policy Lab was held as the culminating event of a jointly run conference exploring the impacts of COVID-19 and related responses on the mental...