Dataset Information

Adolescent mental health difficulties and educational attainment: findings from the UK household longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

This study examines whether there is an independent association between mental difficulties in adolescence and educational attainment at age 16.

Design

Longitudinal study.

Setting

Nationally representative data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) were linked to the National Pupil Database for England.

Participants

Respondents (N=1100) to the UKHLS between 2009 and 2012 were linked to the National Pupil Database to investigate longitudinal associations between mental difficulties at ages 11-14 and educational attainment at age 16 (General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)).

Primary outcome measure

Not gaining five or more GCSE qualifications at age 16, including English and maths at grade A*-C.

Results

An atypical total mental health difficulty score measured using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at ages 11-14 predicted low levels of educational attainment at age 16 (OR: 3.11 (95% CI: (2.11 to 4.57)). Controlling for prior attainment and family sociodemographic factors, happiness with school (/work) and parental health, school engagement and relationship with the child partially attenuated the association, which was significant in the fully adjusted model (2.05, 95% CI (1.15 to 3.68)). The association was maintained in the fully adjusted model for males only (OR: 2.77 (95% CI (1.24 to 6.16)) but not for females. Hyperactivity disorder strongly predicted lower attainment for males (OR: 2.17 (95% CI: (1.11 to 4.23)) and females (OR: 2.85 (95% CI (1.30 to 6.23)).

Conclusion

Mental difficulties at ages 11-14 were independently linked to educational success at age 16, highlighting an important pathway through which health in adolescence can determine young people's life chances.

SUBMITTER: Smith NR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8372813 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundCognitive ability is an important predictor of lifelong physical and mental well-being, and impairments are associated with many psychiatric disorders. Higher cognitive ability is also associated with greater educational attainment and increased household income. Understanding neural mechanisms underlying cognitive ability is of crucial importance for determining the nature of these associations. In the current study, we examined the spontaneous activity of the brain at rest to investigate its relationships with not only cognitive ability but also educational attainment and household income.MethodsWe used a large sample of resting-state neuroimaging data from the UK Biobank (n = 3950).ResultsFirst, analysis at the whole-brain level showed that connections involving the default mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network (FPN), and cingulo-opercular network (CON) were significantly positively associated with levels of cognitive performance assessed by a verbal-numerical reasoning test (standardized ? cingulo-opercular values ranged from 0.054 to 0.097, pcorrected < .038). Connections associated with higher levels of cognitive performance were also significantly positively associated with educational attainment (r = .48, n = 4160) and household income (r = .38, n = 3793). Furthermore, analysis on the coupling of functional networks showed that better cognitive performance was associated with more positive DMN-CON connections, decreased cross-hemisphere connections between the homotopic network in the CON and FPN, and stronger CON-FPN connections (absolute ?s ranged from 0.034 to 0.063, pcorrected < .045).ConclusionsThe current study found that variation in brain resting-state functional connectivity was associated with individual differences in cognitive ability, largely involving the DMN and lateral prefrontal network. In addition, we provide evidence of shared neural associations of cognitive ability, educational attainment, and household income.