Background The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and continued breastfeeding for two years or beyond. Despite well-established health and economic benefits, global breastfeeding rates remain suboptimal. Breastfeeding self-efficacy (BSE), defined as a mother’s confidence in her ability to breastfeed, is a strong predictor of breastfeeding outcomes. Growing attention has been given to the role of partner support in influencing BSE; however, the evidence has not been systematically synthesized. Objective To systematically review global literature examining the relationship between partner support and BSE and to identify operational definitions, support modalities, and methodological gaps. Methods This review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42025615339) and the Campbell Collaboration (cl2.20250036). Seven databases were searched from inception to January 2025 without language restrictions. Studies were screened using Population–Concept–Context criteria. Although qualitative and mixed-methods studies were eligible, all included studies were quantitative. Due to methodological heterogeneity, findings were narratively synthesized. Study quality was assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT 2018). Results Of 21,214 records identified, 14 studies met inclusion criteria (3 randomized controlled trials and 11 cross-sectional studies), published between 2013 and 2024. Most studies used the Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy Scale–Short Form. Overall, evidence suggested a consistent positive association between partner support and maternal BSE. Randomized trials reported significant improvements in BSE following partner-targeted interventions, while most cross-sectional studies found statistically significant positive associations. However, measurement of partner support varied considerably, and few studies directly assessed paternal BSE. Conclusions Partner support is positively associated with maternal BSE across diverse settings. Greater methodological rigor, standardized measures, and theory-informed mixed-methods research are needed to clarify mechanisms and inform culturally sensitive, partner-inclusive breastfeeding interventions.

Leprosy self-care is essential for preventing disability and preserving dignity but remains challenging in resource-constrained settings like Nigeria. Traditional behavioural approaches often fail to address the broader social and material factors influencing self-care sustainability. This study employs Social Practice Theory (SPT) to reconceptualise leprosy self-care as a socially embedded practice, moving beyond individual-focused interventions. Conducted over four months in a leprosy-designated village in North Central Nigeria, the research utilised a qualitative methodology grounded in hermeneutic phenomenology. Data were collected through 20 in-depth interviews with individuals affected by leprosy, five key informant interviews, and 16 hours of non-participant observation. Thematic analysis, guided by SPT's framework of competences, materials, and meanings, revealed that self-care is shaped by dynamic interactions among skills, resource availability, and cultural interpretations. Challenges included inadequate supplies, inconsistent healthcare support, and stigma, which often undermined engagement. Religious practices and daily routines, such as ablution, sometimes supported self-care, while competing activities like street begging posed barriers. The study distinguishes between replaceable and irreplaceable materials, highlighting their impact on practice sustainability. Family and peer involvement further influenced outcomes, either reinforcing or weakening self-care efforts. By framing self-care as a social practice, this research underscores the need for systemic, contextually sensitive interventions that integrate material provision, skill development, and stigma reduction. SPT offers a robust framework for designing multi-level strategies to enhance self-care for leprosy and other chronic conditions, promoting sustainable health outcomes in marginalised communities.

Background: Rigorous systematic reviews in breastfeeding research depend on precise and transparent search strategies. However, the term nursing has dual meaning—referring both to breastfeeding and to the nursing profession—creating potential ambiguity in literature searches. Research Aim: To examine the methodological impact of including the terms nurse and nursing in breastfeeding-related search strategies, and to highlight implications for research quality and policy development. Methods: During a global systematic review on partner support and breastfeeding self-efficacy, seven databases were searched from inception to January 2025. Screening revealed a substantial number of irrelevant records related to the nursing profession. A modified search excluding the truncation “nurs” from titles and abstracts was subsequently conducted in Medline Complete (EBSCOhost) and Embase to assess its impact on retrieval volume and relevance. Results: Initial searches retrieved 21,214 records, with considerable screening burden attributable to irrelevant nursing-profession literature. When “nurs*” was excluded, records in Medline Complete and Embase substantially decreased by 65% and 63%, respectively, without observed loss of relevant breastfeeding studies. The findings demonstrate that ambiguous terminology can substantially inflate retrievals without enhancing comprehensiveness. Conclusion: Routine inclusion of nurse and nursing in breastfeeding searches may reduce efficiency and should be carefully considered in relation to the review context. Implications for Practice and Policy: Precision in search terminology is essential to maintain methodological rigor. Researchers, librarians, editors, and peer reviewers should critically evaluate term selection and promote validated, breastfeeding-specific search filters to strengthen evidence informing lactation policy and clinical practice.

Introduction:Receptive anal intercourse (RAI) is an increasingly reported sexual practice across diverse populations and carries a higher risk of certain health consequences, including HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, anal trauma and anorectal disorders, compared with vaginal intercourse. Despite these risks, research exploring women's experiences, motivations and perceptions of RAI remains limited. Much of the existing literature has focused on gay and bisexual men, leaving women's perspectives comparatively underexamined and their ability to make fully informed sexual-health decisions constrained by this evidence gap. Objectives:This qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis aimed to explore women's perceptions, motivations and experiences of RAI, including how societal attitudes and gender dynamics shape these experiences. Methods:A qualitative systematic review and thematic analysis was conducted following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Searches of PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL and Embase identified peer-reviewed qualitative studies published between January 2010 and June 2025 that examined women's views and experiences of RAI. The Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type framework guided study selection, and data extraction captured study characteristics and verbatim qualitative findings for synthesis. Results:22 studies encompassing 593 women across 12 countries were included. Participants represented diverse ages (14-84 years) and socioeconomic backgrounds. Three overarching themes emerged: (1) motivations for engaging in RAI, often linked to partner expectations, intimacy or curiosity; (2) experiences, spanning pain, discomfort and coercion, but also instances of pleasure and agency and (3) societal views, which reflected both normalisation and enduring stigma. Women's accounts revealed that RAI is negotiated within relational and cultural constraints, where agency and coercion, pleasure and pain, frequently coexist rather than oppose one another. Conclusions:Women's experiences of RAI reveal a complex interplay between sexual agency, bodily autonomy and social meaning. Recognising that pleasure and discomfort can coexist and that decisions are often shaped by relational and cultural dynamics highlights the need for open, non-judgemental discussion of RAI within sexual-health education and clinical practice. Addressing stigma and providing evidence-based guidance can support informed, consensual and safe sexual decision-making for women.

Malawi is among the countries with the highest HIV prevalence worldwide. Adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV) face diverse challenges, which influence their emotional wellbeing and long-term health, in addition to impacting HIV onward transmission. HIV education, especially the use of fear-based animation, but also the figurative language used for HIV, contribute to how ALHIV perceive and respond to their HIV status. The aim of the study was to explore how ALHIV in Malawi describe, perceive, and represent HIV, with a particular focus on the role of language in shaping these perceptions and its impact on their experiences and emotional wellbeing. This study employed hermeneutic phenomenology and reflexive thematic analysis; data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and drawings. Participants were sampled purposively and included 16 ALHIV and five service providers. The adolescents imagined HIV as personified, harmful creature in their body with functional senses and gender identity. Those negative perceptions originated mainly from the local term used for HIV, HIV-related stigma and discrimination and HIV representations in hospital HIV books. HIV peer support groups were identified as safe environments for learning about HIV and for debating HIV-related topics, especially in view of the usually required silence and secrecy to prevent stigma. The findings enhance the understanding of participants’ lived experiences and perceptions of HIV, and thus may contribute to new methods of holistic health education, tailored for adolescents to improve their emotional wellbeing and attitudes towards HIV through context-specific programmes.

External funding supports the HIV and AIDS response in Sub-Saharan Africa, but reducing this dependence is vital for longer-term sustainability. This study examined the ability and willingness to pay for voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) in Uganda as a potential funding source for domestic HIV prevention services. A mixed-methods study design structured around economics and planned behaviour theories was used. Data were collected through phone interviews, with quantitative data analysed using regression and qualitative data via reflexive thematic analysis. A total of 454 participants were recruited for the quantitative study and 29 for in-depth interviews. 85% had the ability to pay, and 76% expressed willingness to pay for VMMC. Key influencing factors included age, education, religion, rural residence, and perceived behavioural control. Study participants demonstrated substantial ability and willingness to pay for VMMC. Fee-for-service programs should address the economic and attitudinal factors influencing ATP and WTP.

Introduction:Long-acting injectable buprenorphine (LAIB) is a relatively novel pharmacological treatment for people with opioid dependence. Despite growing qualitative evidence, there is limited research on practitioner insights, and effectiveness of LAIB in a community setting. Methods:Thirteen service-users (11 currently prescribed LAIB), 6 practitioners, and 4 stakeholders (public health workers) took part in semi-structured interviews (n = 23) to glean their perspectives on LAIB. They were recruited through a community drug treatment service in the NW of England. The interview schedule was informed by previous literature and co-produced with a peer worker with lived experience of drug recovery treatment. Transcripts were analysed thematically by the research team. Results:Four major themes were identified from the interviews: A change of focus; challenges; wrap-around support; and target groups. Discussion:Our findings support existing evidence around the individual benefits to service-users such as changes to lifestyle and reduction of stigma, as well as challenges such as the need for wrap-around support and accessible information. We found that commissioning considerations such as geographical inequalities and the need for multi-service collaboration are important in this setting. Conclusions:LAIB treatment works well for many people in a community context that offers significant wrap-around support to service-users. The novelty of this research lies in bringing together the views of practitioners and stakeholders as well as treatment/service beneficiaries in evaluating the introduction of LAIB in a community service.

ObjectiveTo synthesize qualitative evidence, using the framework analysis method, on how participating in a digital storytelling workshop shapes the storytellers’ health attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.MethodsWe conducted a meta-synthesis using the framework analysis method to generate analytic themes. We searched Medline, CINHAL, SocIndex, Embase, PsycINFO, SciELO, Academic Search Ultimate, Scopus, the Directory of Open Access Journals, and LIVIVO. We used the GRADE-CERQual approach to assess the confidence in the review findings.ResultsWe included 25 qualitative studies from six countries representing the experiences of 629 storytellers. Confidence in most review findings was moderate. Storytellers experience digital storytelling workshops as a safe space where they reframe the narratives around their health experiences. This re-storying process extends storytellers’ understanding of their health experiences, affords them a sense of agency and control, and motivates them to use their stories to support others.ConclusionWe found evidence that digital storytelling enables storytellers to reflect and emotionally engage with the narratives shared in the co-construction of digital stories, resulting in a narrative shift that is likely to be experienced as health-promoting.Systematic Review Registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42023478062, PROSPERO CRD42023478062.

Numerous studies demonstrate the benefits of the role of nature, activities, and social interaction at nature-based interventions in improving participants' wellbeing. These health-enabling encounters between people and places have typically been framed in geography via the concept of therapeutic landscapes. Empirical studies and theory have primarily focused on the characteristics of physical and social environments of therapeutic landscapes, while understanding why particular relational encounters are affective in co-creating therapeutic experiences has been given less attention. This paper focuses on understanding the nature of a person, and of interactions between people, as a fundamental part of understanding the way in which nature-based interventions co-create benefits to participants' wellbeing. To consider this we turn to person-centred psychotherapy, where we draw on Carl Rogers' conceptualisations of the person and the therapeutic relationship. Person-centred psychotherapy highlights the importance of a non-judgemental, empathic, and authentic therapeutic relationship in providing an environment for change and that a person is agentic in perceiving and engaging with affective relations in co-creating therapeutic encounters. These encounters have the potential to alleviate and/or transform aspects of a person's sense of self. These shifts in a person's self-concept are part of a process, which enables the flow of benefits from an intervention into participants' daily lives. Our approach is underpinned by using interviews with facilitators and participants of nature-based interventions. We propose that developing geographical understanding of the relational impacts on a person's sense of self and actions has implications beyond health geography.

Despite voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) being a cost-effective intervention for preventing HIV transmission, its scale-up has faced challenges. Several interventions to address these challenges in priority countries, including Uganda, have not yielded the desired results. This cross-sectional qualitative study aimed to explore the factors that affect the demand for VMMC and identify possible solutions. Semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with 29 males aged at least 18 and not more than 65 drawn randomly from a database representative of the general population maintained by an independent research organisation. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted, and data analysis was done using NVivo version 12. The results were presented in narrative format with supporting quotes. The study received ethical and regulatory clearance to be conducted in Uganda. The average age of the respondents was 28 years. Almost all respondents had some education, and most lived in rural areas. Two themes were generated, namely, 1) deficits and opportunities for VMMC, which are issues that currently hinder the uptake of VMMC but, if addressed, would lead to better demand, and 2) pivots and shifts for VMMC, which are changes that need to be made to improve the uptake of VMMC. We found that several challenges, including myths, misconceptions, health system gaps, and uncertainties about the postoperative period, hindered the uptake of VMMC. Pivots and shifts for improving the uptake of VMMC include intensifying VMMC campaigns, addressing inequities, and addressing access barriers. We concluded that several challenges, including myths and misconceptions, health system-related gaps, and uncertainties in the post-circumcision period, persist and negatively impact the scale-up of VMMC in Uganda. VMMC beneficiaries have plausible proposals for addressing challenges. The Uganda Ministry of Health should address the myths, misconceptions, health system-related gaps, and uncertainties about the postoperative period and should involve VMMC beneficiaries in reviewing interventions to address gaps.

Adolescence is a key time to prevent or reduce poor mental health outcomes. Supportive school environments play an important role in this, and the concept of health-promoting schools have been supported globally. Participatory action research (PAR) combines theory, practice, action, and reflection by developing practical solutions to address concerns and issues within communities. Running four PAR groups across three secondary schools, we explored the feasibility of using the approach as a mechanism for bringing about culture change and improving mental health. We undertook interviews and focus groups with students (n = 24), school staff (n = 11), facilitators (n = 3), and parents/carers (n = 2). Findings are organised under five key headings: 1) Establishing PAR groups, and the PAR cycle; 2) PAR group impact; 3) Facilitators of PAR success; 4) Barriers to PAR success; 5) Future recommendations. This study demonstrated the feasibility of PAR as a tool to improve school culture. Students participating in PAR were engaged, passionate, and motivated to influence and transform school culture to improve mental health. Future research should aim to trial the PAR approach on a larger scale, to determine whether the barriers and facilitators of PAR success identified here are relevant and transferable to schools in other contexts, and to measure the impact of such initiatives on mental health outcomes.

INTRODUCTION:Peer education interventions are widely used in secondary schools with an aim to improve students' health literacy and/or health behaviours. Although peer education is a popular intervention technique with some evidence of effectiveness, we know relatively little about the key components that lead to health improvements among young people, or components that may be less helpful. This review aims to identify the main mechanisms involved in school-based peer education health interventions for 11-18-year-olds.METHODS:Five electronic databases were searched for eligible studies during October 2020, an updated search was then conducted in January 2023 to incorporate any new studies published between November 2020 and January 2023. To be included in the review, studies must have evaluated a school-based peer education intervention designed to address aspects of the health of students aged 11-18 years old and contain data relevant to mechanisms of effect of these interventions. No restrictions were placed on publication date, or country but only manuscripts available in English language were included.RESULTS:Forty papers were identified for inclusion with a total of 116 references to intervention mechanisms which were subsequently grouped thematically into 10 key mechanisms. The four most common mechanisms discussed were: 1) Peerness; similar, relatable and credible 2) A balance between autonomy and support, 3) School values and broader change in school culture; and 4) Informal, innovative and personalised delivery methods. Mechanisms were identified in quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods intervention evaluations.DISCUSSION:This study highlights a number of key mechanisms that can be used to inform development of future school-based peer education health interventions to maximise effectiveness. Future studies should aim to create theories of change or logic models, and then test the key mechanisms, rather than relying on untested theoretical assumptions. Future work should also examine whether particular mechanisms may lead to harm, and also whether certain mechanisms are more or less important to address different health issues, or whether a set of generic mechanisms always need to be activated for success.

National Institute for Health and Care Research School for Public Health Research.

ObjectiveExamine the association between country-level gender social norms and (1) cardiovascular disease mortality rates; (2) female to male cardiovascular disease mortality ratios; and (3) life expectancy.DesignEcological study with the country as the unit of analysis.SettingGlobal, country-level data.ParticipantsGlobal population of countries with data available on gender social norms as measured by the Gender Social Norms Index (developed by the United Nations Development Programme).Main outcome measuresCountry-level female and male age-standardised cardiovascular disease mortality rates, population age-standardised cardiovascular disease mortality rates, female to male cardiovascular disease mortality ratios, female and male life expectancy at birth. Outcome measure data were retrieved from the WHO and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Multivariable linear regression models were fitted to explore the relationship between gender social norms and the outcome variables.ResultsHigher levels of biased gender social norms, as measured by the Gender Social Norms Index, were associated with higher female, male and population cardiovascular disease mortality rates in the multivariable models (β 4.86, 95% CIs 3.18 to 6.54; β 5.28, 95% CIs 3.42 to 7.15; β 4.89, 95% CIs 3.18 to 6.60), and lower female and male life expectancy (β −0.07, 95% CIs −0.11 to −0.03; β −0.05, 95% CIs −0.10 to −0.01). These results included adjustment within the models for potentially confounding country-level factors including gross domestic product per capita, population mean years of schooling, physicians per 1000 population, year of Gender Social Norms Index data collection and maternal mortality ratio.ConclusionsOur analysis suggests that higher levels of biased gender social norms are associated with higher rates of population cardiovascular disease mortality and lower life expectancy for both sexes. Future research should explore this relationship further, to define its causal role and promote public health action.

Globally, research indicates that LGBTQ+ young people have elevated rates of poor mental health in comparison with their cisgender heterosexual peers. The school environment is a major risk factor and is consistently associated with negative mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ young people. The aim of this UK study was to develop a programme theory that explained how, why, for whom, and in what context school-based interventions prevent or reduce mental health problems in LGBTQ+ young people, through participation with key stakeholders. Online realist interviews were conducted in the UK with (1) LGBTQ+ young people aged between 13–18 years attending secondary schools (N = 10); (2) intervention practitioners (N = 9); and (3) school staff (N = 3). A realist retroductive data analysis strategy was employed to identify causal pathways across different interventions that improved mental health outcomes. The programme theory we produced explains how school-based interventions that directly tackle dominant cisgender and heterosexual norms can improve LGBTQ+ pupils’ mental health. We found that context factors such as a ‘whole-school approach’ and ‘collaborative leadership’ were crucial to the delivery of successful interventions. Our theory posits three causal pathways that might improve mental health: (1) interventions that promote LGBTQ+ visibility and facilitate usualising, school belonging, and recognition; (2) interventions for talking and support that develop safety and coping; and (3) interventions that address institutional school culture (staff training and inclusion polices) that foster school belonging, empowerment, recognition, and safety. Our theoretical model suggests that providing a school environment that affirms and usualises LGBTQ+ identities and promotes school safety and belonging can improve mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ pupils.

INTRODUCTION:Midwives have the potential to significantly contribute to health-delivery systems by providing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, and adolescent health (SRMNAH) care. However, scant research finds barriers to understanding what midwives need to realize their full potential. There are gaps in the definition of a midwife and an understanding of effective means to support the implementation of midwifery care. Mentorship has been found to support systems and healthcare providers to improve care availability and quality.OBJECTIVES:We describe the methodology of an integrative review that aims to generate evidence of the impact of introducing midwives and also on-site facility mentoring to better understand facilitators and barriers to implementation of the quality and availability of SRMNAH services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).METHODS:The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines will be used to carry out the integrative review. Four electronic bibliographic databases, PubMed MEDLINE, EMBASE, Scopus, and CINAHL, will be used to identify eligible studies. All types of qualitative or quantitative studies will be considered. Eligible studies will be screened according to Population, Intervention, Comparison, and Outcome (PICO) inclusion criteria, and data will be extracted against a predetermined format. The aspects of health system strengthening in providing improved SRMNCH care will be examined in this review to generate evidence on how midwives and mentorship can improve routine care and health outcomes using the World Health Organization's Six Building Blocks approach. The quality of the articles will be thematically analyzed in four areas: coherence and integrity, appropriateness for answering the question, relevance and focus, and overall assessment using the Gough weight-of-evidence framework.EXPECTED RESULTS:The literature review will consider assessing both upstream health systems regulators and downstream effectors for implementing midwifery interventions. Within this building block framework, this research will report on the outcomes and experiences of introducing midwives and the effectiveness of mentoring midwives and other staff in midwives' roles in improving care quality and health outcomes.

Background The African continent has the highest burden of HIV and AIDS, with its response to HIV and AIDS largely donor supported. However, in the face of declining donor support, alternative ways to sustainably support HIV and AIDS responses in Africa are paramount. This systematic review explores the willingness to pay (WTP) for HIV services in Africa as a potentially more sustainable HIV and AIDS service cost recovery approach. Methods A comprehensive systematic search for literature was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and CINAHL and websites of HIV and AIDS organisations for studies published until 30 June 2023. Studies were included if they were about WTP, HIV and AIDS services, were conducted in Africa and were published in English. Studies were excluded if they used methods other than WTP and were not about an HIV service. JBI critical appraisal tools were used to assess for quality and risk of bias. Information on the HIV service, the study methods, and factors influencing WTP were extracted. A descriptive thematic analysis was undertaken to synthesise evidence. The findings are summarised in tables and graphs. Results 5,141 records were identified and screened for eligibility from the initial search. After title and abstract screening and removing duplicates, twenty-three articles from 10 countries with 20,780 study participants were included in the final review. There is an uneven distribution of WTP studies across different types of HIV services and across countries. There is evidence of a willingness to pay for HIV services, with the proportion of people reported in individual studies that are willing to pay ranging from 34.3% to 97.1%. However, in most studies (77.3%, 17/22), the amount people are willing to pay cannot cover the full-service cost in an open market. Factors associated with WTP include socio-economic status, beliefs, and knowledge about HIV services. Conclusions This systematic review presents evidence of cost recovery from HIV programs. The main finding is that other resources, beyond out-of-pocket payments, are needed to meet the total cost of any service. This has implications for providing (non-donor-funded) services on a sustainable level in the long term. In interpreting the findings of this study, limitations such as excluding papers not published in English need to be considered. Registration : PROSPERO, CRD42021275215.

Background There is an urgent global call for health systems to strengthen access to quality sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health, particularly for the most vulnerable. Professional midwives with enabling environments are identified as an important solution. However, a multitude of barriers prevent midwives from fully realizing their potential. Effective interventions to address known barriers and enable midwives and quality sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health are less well known. This review intends to evaluate the literature on (1) introducing midwives in low- and middle-income countries, and (2) on mentoring as a facilitator to enable midwives and those in midwifery roles to improve sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health service quality within health systems. Methods An integrative systematic literature review was conducted, guided by the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome framework. Articles were reviewed for quality and relevance using the Gough weight-of-evidence framework and themes were identified. A master table categorized articles by Gough score, methodology, country of focus, topic areas, themes, classification of midwives, and mentorship model. The World Health Organization health systems building block framework was applied for data extraction and analysis. Results Fifty-three articles were included: 13 were rated as high, 36 as medium, and four as low according to the Gough criteria. Studies that focused on midwives primarily highlighted human resources, governance, and service delivery while those focused on mentoring were more likely to highlight quality services, lifesaving commodities, and health information systems. Midwives whose pre-service education met global standards were found to have more efficacy. The most effective mentoring packages were comprehensive, integrated into existing systems, and involved managers. Conclusions Effectively changing sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health systems is complex. Globally standard midwives and a comprehensive mentoring package show effectiveness in improving service quality and utilization. Trial registration The protocol is registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022367657).

Drawing on the three-element model of social practice theory and key conceptualisations relating to gender performance, this article reports on an empirical study of the intersecting practices of drinking alcohol and doing gender. We present data from a 14-month research project to explore the online and offline intoxicated drinking practices of 23 young people in England framed as a 'proper night out'. The data were analysed with a focus on three elements (the 'corporeal', 'alcohol', and 'caring'), and the findings demonstrate how young people collectively practice gender through their intoxicated drinking practices. This operationalisation of practice theory highlights the potential value that a practice theory lens has for exploring gendered social practices and broadening understandings of notions of acceptable and suitable practice performance.

Many mental health problems begin in adolescence and occur on a spectrum of severity: early recognition and intervention is important. This study is a quantitative feasibility study of the Mental Health Foundation's Peer Education Project (PEP). Attrition, psychometric properties of questionnaires, indications of improvement on a range of outcomes, and sample size required for a powered trial of effectiveness were assessed. 203 students completed the survey both pre and post-intervention. It was found that existing previously-validated measures had good psychometric properties, with two new questionnaires demonstrating reasonable reliability (self-help confidence alpha = 0.78, mental health knowledge alpha = 0.59). There were indications of improvement in help-seeking intentions, the number of sources likely to seek help from, and mental health knowledge from pre- to post-intervention. A future trial of PEP with a sample of approximately 36 schools, researcher-led data collections, and help-seeking intentions or sources as a primary outcome appears to be feasible.