Abstract
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.
Declaration of interest
The Umeå SIMSAM Lab data infrastructure used in this study was developed with support from the Swedish Research Council and strategic funds from Umeå University.
Notes
1 The prevalence of drug treatment in terms of number of patients per 1000 inhabitants in Sweden for the year 2014: neuroleptics (N05A) 22.49, sedatives, anxiolytics (N05B) 58.12, hypnotics and sedatives (N05C) 83.17, antidepressants (N06) 90.92, centrally acting sympathomimetic (N06BA) 8.72, 2015, Läkemedel – statistik för år 2014 (Pharmaceuticals – Statistics for 2014).