The influence of mental health on educational attainment in adolescence

Growing evidence of the prevalence of poor mental health among children and young people in the UK has led to this issue becoming a key policy priority. Recent Government reports and policy programmes have particularly emphasised the role of schools and colleges, as universal services, in supporting children and young people's mental health and improving early identification of and intervention for pupils with particular mental health needs.

While such reports have presented an economic case for investment in early prevention of mental ill health, emphasising the costs of long term treatment for persistent poor mental health in adult life, this economic argument neglects the impact that early life mental health potentially has on other early life outcomes fundamental in determining life chances, such as educational attainment.

There are a number of mechanisms through which poor mental health could lead to poorer educational outcomes, including through school absence and dropout, through behavioural and attentional difficulties and through lowered aspirations and school connectedness. Alternatively, the association between mental health and educational outcomes might not be direct and causal, but incorporate the influence of other social, biological and/or demographic confounding factors. Existing evidence suggests that poor mental health in childhood and early adolescence is associated with poorer educational and employment outcomes in later life. However, a robust, longitudinal, up-to-date and nationally representative study is needed to unequivocally establish whether a causal relationships exists. Robust evidence of a causal relationship between poor mental health and lower academic attainment could be hugely influential in further encouraging education policymakers and schools to invest in mental health.

This research will investigate the influence of mental health and well-being throughout early adolescence on educational attainment at Key Stage 4, using longitudinal data from the Youth Panel of Understanding Society, the UK Household Panel Study (UKHLS), which has been linked to the National Pupil Database. It will consider how far parental characteristics, the home learning environment, individual demographics, in-school behaviours and prior attainment mediate the association between attainment and mental health and well-being.

The questions to be answered are as follows:

i. To what extent are family socioeconomic and demographic circumstances associated with educational attainment throughout adolescence?
ii. To what extent is the home learning environment associated with educational attainment throughout adolescence?
iii. How far does psychological mental health and well-being explain educational attainment?
iv. What factors mediate the association between mental health and educational attainment?
v. Are these associations consistent across different socioeconomic and demographic groups, geographical areas, or school types?

Who will benefit from this research?

As discussed elsewhere in this proposal, academics and policy makers interested in the social determinants of (mental) health and educational attainment will benefit greatly from the unique new knowledge to be produced by this research. This would include:
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Sociologists
- Educationalists
- Life course epidemiologists
- Policy makers

In addition, this research has potential to greatly benefit children and young people across the country, and the schools and other services who seek to provide for them.

How will they benefit from this research?

Robust evidence of a causal relationship between poor mental health and lower academic attainment could further encourage education policymakers and schools to invest in mental health for a number of reasons:
- Although schools appreciate the importance of supporting pupils' health and wellbeing, a proven link to academic outcomes can help boost the profile and resourcing levels currently attributed to mental health.
- Evidence of a causal relationship with education would encourage investment in researching "what works" in supporting CYP's mental health.
- In addition, evidence of a relationship between mental health and educational outcomes might point towards a fresh new approach to addressing social mobility.

How will the impact of this research be maximised?

NatCen's mission is to deliver social research for the benefit of society. The process of knowledge exchange is therefore embedded in our research process, from design to delivery to dissemination, to enable our research to be used widely by civil and public society as well as academics and policy makers.

This project will exploit existing stakeholder links generated as a consequence of a large event to publicise our Department of Education study on mental health provision in schools (September 2017). The team is actively engaging with a number of organisations who will attend who will also be important stakeholders for this proposal including various teaching organisations, Child and Adolescence Mental Health Services, Place2Be and the Anna Freud Centre.

Supported by the NatCen Marketing and Communications team, we will use these relationships to publicise the findings of this research through further events and workshops, collaborative opportunities, a targeted mailing list, blogs, a dedicated project website, the current NatCen website which receives around 45,000 hits per month and the well-established NatCen Twitter account that provides ready-links to potential policy and impact makers.

Dr Hagell of the Association for Young People's Health will lead on identifying key stakeholders, target audiences, core messages and impactful modalities and platforms for engagement and influence. The AYPH will communicate the project through media (press), the production of communication assets (such as podcasts, blogs and infographics), policy documents (briefings and reports), presence at others' events (seminars, conferences) and organisation of project dissemination events (policy roundtables). Given the current high profile of mental health in young people, we anticipate involvement in public affairs work including Parliamentary Questions, engagement with key Committees and All Party Parliamentary Groups. The team has also partnered with the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), who will publicise the project and disseminate the findings.

Importantly, we have also proposed youth validation activities. By opening a dialogue with the young people who are at the core of this study, we will better understand what aspects of our research have most relevance to young peoples' lived experiences. These messages will be translated into appropriate policy recommendations that serve the interests of young people today. A policy workshop is planned at the end of the project to present these ideas to stakeholders.