SJD MIND Schools Program, Hospital Sant Joan de Déu, Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain.
Centre for Health and Social Care Research (CEES), University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), Vic, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2022 Mar 11;12(1):4291. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-08242-9.
Psychiatric symptoms have consistently been associated with negative educational outcomes. However, possible confounding variables, such as comorbid mental and environmental conditions, have not been well addressed. This study examined whether mental health problems were significantly linked to academic performance in a Spanish school-based sample, after adjustment for co-occurring psychiatric symptoms and multiple contextual factors. Parents completed a questionnaire regarding child's sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., gender, age, type of school, socioeconomic status, ethnicity), stressful events (i.e., adoption, parental divorce/separation, grade retention) and lifestyle (i.e., diet, sleep, screen time), along with the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Academic performance was obtained from school records. The sample comprised 7036 students aged 5-17 with full data on the CBCL. Mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between psychopathology and academic achievement, controlling for potential confounders. When examined separately, higher scores on the CBCL scales were related to lower grades, regardless of sociodemographic factors. However, after controlling for the presence of other psychiatric symptoms, we found that students who reported more anxious/depressed and thought problems were less likely to perform poorly, while those with increased levels of attention problems and delinquent behavior had higher risk for academic underachievement. These associations remained mainly the same once stressful events and lifestyle were taken into account. This investigation demonstrates that anxious/depressed symptoms, thought problems, attention problems, and delinquent behavior are independently associated with academic performance, which emphasize the need for preventive and treatment interventions targeted at students' mental health to improve their psychological well-being and functioning at school.
精神症状与负面的教育结果一直相关。然而，共存的精神和环境状况等混杂变量尚未得到很好的解决。本研究在调整共存的精神症状和多种环境因素后，检查了西班牙基于学校的样本中精神健康问题是否与学业成绩显著相关。父母填写了一份关于孩子社会人口特征（即性别、年龄、学校类型、社会经济地位、种族）、压力事件（即收养、父母离婚/分居、留级）和生活方式（即饮食、睡眠、屏幕时间）的问卷，以及儿童行为检查表（CBCL）。学业成绩从学校记录中获得。该样本包括 7036 名年龄在 5-17 岁之间的学生，他们在 CBCL 上有完整的数据。采用混合效应有序逻辑回归分析来研究精神病理学与学业成绩之间的关联，控制潜在的混杂因素。当分别检查时，CBCL 量表上的较高分数与较低的成绩相关，而与社会人口因素无关。然而，在控制其他精神症状的存在后，我们发现报告更多焦虑/抑郁和思维问题的学生不太可能表现不佳，而注意力问题和犯罪行为水平增加的学生则更有可能学业成绩不佳。这些关联在考虑到压力事件和生活方式后仍然基本保持不变。这项研究表明，焦虑/抑郁症状、思维问题、注意力问题和犯罪行为与学业成绩独立相关，这强调了针对学生心理健康的预防和治疗干预的必要性，以提高他们在学校的心理健康和功能。
