Mental-health and educational achievement: the link between poor mental-health and upper secondary school completion and grades.

BACKGROUND

Education profoundly affects adult socioeconomic status, so it is important to ensure that all children have the capability and opportunity to achieve educational goals.

AIMS

The study aimed to examine the relationship between mental-health during adolescence and upper secondary school completion and grades, which has received comparatively little research attention to date.

METHOD

Longitudinal administrative and registered data were used to analyse the relationship between school achievement and prescriptions of psycholeptic and psycho-analeptic drugs. The sample consisted of all children born in Sweden in 1990 (n = 109 223), who were followed from birth to age 20. Logistic and OLS regressions were performed separately for boys and girls, controlling for birth health and family characteristics.

RESULTS

A negative relationship between mental-health problems and educational outcomes was found; this result was almost independent of the controls. Only minor differences between the sexes were detected.

CONCLUSIONS

Poor mental-health during childhood correlated negatively with educational attainment. Given the strong link between educational success and adult life, more resources are needed to support children with mental-health problems.