Mental health and educational attainment: How developmental stage matters.

Developmental science suggests that the consequences of mental health problems for life-course outcomes may depend on the timing of their onset. This study investigated the extent to which mental health predicted educational attainment at ages 17, 20, and 25 and whether gender moderated the links between mental health and educational attainment. It used data from Next Steps, a nationally representative panel survey of individuals born in 1989/1990 in England (N = 15,594, 48% female, 33% ethnic minority). The findings suggest that differences in mental health were more consequential for educational attainment during adolescence than in young adulthood. On average, girls attained higher levels of education than boys, but gender did not moderate the role that mental health played for educational attainment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Is Academic Agency Relevant for the School-to-Work Transition of Lower Attainers? Evidence from Canada and England.

Academic agency is recognized as an important predictor of higher education attainment among the general population during the school-to-work transition. However, there is little evidence on whether (a) academic agency is associated with higher education attainment among young people facing education difficulties (i.e., lower attainers), (b) academic agency is associated with a smooth entry in a meaningful job among lower attainers, and (c) these associations vary across educational contexts. This study draws on longitudinal data from lower attainers in the province of Québec (Mage = 16.31, SD = 0.98; 48% females) and in England (Mage = 15.86, SD = 0.72; 42% females), two regions with similar education systems, yet different vocational training provision. In both samples, fewer than one in four participants reach higher education by age 20. Also, in both countries academic agency is associated with a greater likelihood of being in higher education compared to other employment and education outcomes at age 20, but not with rapid entry into meaningful employment. Thus, focussing on higher education attainment and academic-related factors such as academic agency is of limited relevance for understanding lower attainers' success over school-to work transitions. For them, understanding this transition also requires considering rapid entry in meaningful employment, as well as non-academic forms of agency supporting such work-oriented outcomes.

Beyond college for all: Portrait of rapid and successful school-to-work transitions among vulnerable youth.

For noncollege-bound youth, swiftly finding a satisfying job upon exiting compulsory schooling might support adjustment. Yet, youths' own job perceptions have rarely been considered in school-to-work transition research. Sequence analysis of monthly occupational status over 4 years (ages 16-20) in a low socioeconomic status Canadian sample overrepresenting academically-vulnerable youth (N = 386; 50% male; 23% visible minority) generated five school-to-work pathways: two work-bound ones with jobs perceived as aligned with career goals (Career Job, 10%) or not (Fill-In Job, 26%), alongside three others (Disconnected [15%], Prolonged Secondary Education [25%], Postsecondary Education [24%]). Mental health was strongest in the Career Job pathway. Male sex and adolescent employment were precursors to this advantageous pathway, underscoring the crucial role of work experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Stability and Change in Adolescents' Sense of Agency: Contributions of Sex, Multiple Risk, Pandemic Stress, and Attachment to Parents.

Although literature states that individual, relational, and contextual factors contribute to adolescents' sense of agency, more research is needed to clarify and understand how adolescents develop this belief over time. The current study examined the stability/change trajectories of the sense of agency during adolescence, specifically across high school, analyzing whether attachment to parents over time, adolescents' sex, cumulative risk in baseline, and pandemic-related stress explained these trajectories. The sample included 467 Portuguese adolescents (40.7% were males; Mage = 15.58 years, SD = 0.80), evaluated three times across 18 months. This work yielded three significant findings. First, adolescents' sense of agency significantly increased over time, with significant between-subject variance at the initial levels but not at the growth rate. Second, attachment to parents consistently links to adolescents' sense of agency across time, despite the differential contributions from attachment to mothers and fathers. Third, boys reported greater growth in the sense of agency than girls. Adolescents' cumulative risk at T1 predicted lower initial levels of sense of agency, whereas higher pandemic-related stress predicted less growth of the sense of agency. These findings emphasize the contributions of individual and family characteristics and the role of the broader social context in shaping the development of adolescents' sense of agency. The findings underline the need to consider further the differential influences of adolescents' relationships with mothers and fathers to understand changes in adolescents' sense of agency.

The long-term benefits of adolescent school engagement for adult educational and employment outcomes.

School engagement in adolescence is often associated with better academic performance at school, but what are the longitudinal associations between school engagement and adult educational and employment status? The current study explored these longitudinal associations using data spanning 40-years of life, from the 1970 British Cohort Study. School engagement at age 16-years was used to predict highest educational level at age 34-years, and socioeconomic status and income at ages 34- and 46-years, controlling for childhood socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, gender, and ethnic minority status, collected at ages 5- or 10-years. The 13,135 individuals in the sample were born in 1970, were mainly White (96%), and were identified at age 5-years as being 48% female. Longitudinal structural equation models revealed that adolescent school engagement had a persistent, positive impact on adult educational and employment outcomes after individual differences were controlled for. The results are interpreted using the perspective that school engagement can channel resources which are important for later educational and occupational success. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Living with COVID-19: Subjective Well-Being in the Second Phase of the Pandemic.

While there is ample evidence of the decline in mental health among youth during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, less is known about the determinants of recovery, which is the focus of this study. Drawing on a stress process framework, this study examines the associations of changes in direct, pandemic-related, and indirect, lockdown-related stressors with life satisfaction. A novel representative, longitudinal sample of British 16-25-year-olds is used, drawing on 6 data collections between February 2021 to May 2022 (N = 6000, 51% female, 24% ethnic minority, 46% in work, 35% with higher education). Using linear fixed-effects regression models, the findings suggest a substantial improvement in life satisfaction among youth. An increasing frequency of social contacts, receding worries about career prospects and job skills learning contributed significantly to increases in life satisfaction, whereas direct, health-related COVID-19 stressors did not affect life satisfaction. Sub-group analysis suggests that women's, adolescents', and students' life satisfaction responded more strongly to the stressors considered in this study. The findings highlight the positive effects of less stringent lockdown restrictions, economic recovery, and opportunities for job skills learning on youth's happiness.

Does the trauma associated with out-of-home care transmit across generations? Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort Study during a major health pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Children with experience of out-of-home care (OHC) are at an increased risk of adverse outcomes in later life, including poorer levels of psycho-social adjustment. Less is known about the intergenerational transmission of the trauma associated with OHC and psychosocial outcomes in mid-adulthood, particularly during a major health pandemic. DESIGN: To examine if there is evidence of intergenerational transmission of trauma associated with OHC in mid-adulthood, we used data from the 1970 British Cohort Study 2020 COVID-19 Survey. PARTICIPANTS: Cases were defined as cohort members (CMs) who had themselves experienced OHC (OHC1) and those whose mother reported to have been in OHC (OHC2). Among the 5320 CMs who participated in the second COVID-19 Survey, we have OHC information for n=4236. Our analytical samples range from n=2472 to 3864 depending on outcome: the largest sample comprised 105 (2.5%) CMs with direct OHC experience (OHC1), 93 (2.2%) CMs with a mother who had OHC experience (OHC2) and 3666 CMs with no OHC experience (OHC0). OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported outcomes at age 50 included indicators of depression, health and psychological well-being. Multivariate logistic regression models control for socioeconomic childhood background and current circumstances. RESULTS: Compared with the majority OHC0, the OHC1 group report higher levels of depression (OR 2.18 (95% CI 1.09 to 4.36) p<.05) and are at a greater risk of poor mental (OR 2.23 (95% CI 1.24 to 4.02) p<0.01) and general health (OR 3.32 (95% CI 1.65 to 6.67) p<0.001) during the pandemic. OHC2 was more than twice as likely to report poor mental health prepandemic (OR 2.52 (95% CI 1.37 to 4.64) p<0.01), but not during the pandemic. CONCLUSION: Children of care leaver mothers (OHC2) appear to be better adjusted than those who were themselves in care (OHC1), although compared with those without care experience (OHC0) both groups had an increased risk of poorer adult outcomes. However, the findings point to both continuity and discontinuity of disadvantage.

Social Inequalities in Young People's Mental Distress During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Do Psychosocial Resource Factors Matter?

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected young people aged 16-25 years and has brought about a major increase in mental health problems. Although there is persisting evidence regarding SES differences in mental health status, there is still little knowledge of the processes linking SES to young people's mental health, in particular during the current pandemic. Guided by a stress process model this study examines the role of different psychosocial resource factors in mitigating the vulnerability to mental distress among disadvantaged young people and specifies a range of possible mediating pathways. The research draws on a nationally representative longitudinal sample of 16-25 year-olds who participated in the Youth Economic Activity and Health (YEAH) online survey conducted in the UK between February and October 2021. Mental health was measured using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist for anxiety and depression. Socio-economic disadvantage was indicated by parental education and receipt of free school meals. Experience of stress was indicated by financial strain. Psychosocial resource factors included indicators of optimism, self-efficacy, and social support. We controlled for age, gender, living arrangements, and economic activity of the young person (being in education, employment or NEET). The findings suggest sequential mediating processes where SES influences are partially mediated via financial strain and the psychosocial resource factors. In addition, the psychosocial resource factors showed independent effects supporting mental health in the face of socio-economic adversity. Moreover, social support played a significant role in boosting self-efficacy and optimism, which in turn reduce mental distress. The findings highlighting the importance of specifying the assumed mediating processes, and to consider multiple resource factors instead of single aspects to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the processes linking SES to young people's mental health.

Parental meta-emotion, attachment to parents, and personal agency in adolescents.

Guided by attachment theory, we explored in the present study the links between parental emotion-coaching, attachment to parents, and adolescent's sense of agency. Further, we examined a possible mediating role of adolescent's attachment to parents in the association between parental emotion-coaching and sense of agency. All models control for cumulative psychosocial risk, and adolescents' sex and age, and take into account the reports of both mothers and fathers. The sample included 501 Portuguese families comprising adolescents, their mothers, and their fathers. Adolescents (ages ranged from 15 to 18) reported on their attachment to parents, personal agency, and cumulative psychosocial risk, whereas mothers and fathers independently completed a questionnaire assessing their meta-emotion skills. The results indicate that both mothers' and fathers' emotional-coaching are positively associated with the quality of adolescent's attachment to parents. Nonetheless, parental emotion-coaching are not directly associate with sense of agency. The quality of emotional bond with father is linked to a more positive sense of agency, while relationships characterized by mother's inhibition of adolescent's exploration are associated with less positive perceptions of agency. Parental emotion-coaching seems to be associated with the sense of personal agency through the quality of attachment to parents. These results are discussed according to attachment theory taking into account the parents' importance to adolescents' development. Our findings provide a first attempt to unravel the possible links between parental emotion-coaching, attachment to parents, and sense of agency; nevertheless, they need to expand. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Household dysfunction and child development: Do financial resources matter?

Children who experience household dysfunction often report more developmental problems and lower educational attainment. A question, however, is whether these lower outcomes are caused by the household dysfunction itself, or by other (pre-existing) factors, such as growing up in poverty. Based on the extended family stress model, we derived hypotheses on the consequences of household dysfunction for child development. Furthermore, we considered the mediating and moderating role of parents' financial resources in the impact of household dysfunction on children's development. We studied these relationships while rigorously accounting for differential selection into experiencing household dysfunction using data from the British Millennium Cohort Study and employing descriptive and fixed-effects analyses. We found that children who experienced household dysfunction after age 5 already had more behavioural problems prior to these experiences. This underscores the importance of accounting for differential selection into experiencing household dysfunction. We also found that household dysfunction beginning after age 5 led to more behavioural problems but did not impact children's verbal ability. Parents' financial resources declined after household dysfunction, particularly among high-income households. However, we found only weak evidence of a mediating effect of financial resources, and larger declines in financial resources did not translate into larger consequences of household dysfunction among children from high-income households. Financial resources thus mainly seemed to play an important role for selection into experiencing household dysfunction.

Time trend analysis of social inequalities in psychological distress among young adults before and during the pandemic: evidence from the UK Household Longitudinal Study COVID-19 waves.

BACKGROUND: Despite concerns about mental health problems among those aged 16-24 in England, which social groups have been most at risk, both over the past decade and during the COVID-19 pandemic, remains unclear. METHODS: We examined trends in psychological distress among young adults 16-24 years old in England using data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Using longitudinal data as repeated cross-sectional waves, we examined differences over time in mean General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) scores from wave 1 (2009-2010) to wave 10 (2018-2019) and six COVID-19 waves collected between April and November 2020, by economic activity, cohabitation with parents, parental education, area deprivation, ethnicity, age and sex. RESULTS: Compared with 2009-2010, increases in GHQ scores in 2018-2019 were higher in women than men (2.1 vs 1.3), those aged 16-18 than aged 22-24 (2.6 vs 0.9), those from white UK group versus other ethnic minorities, and those out of the labour force (3.6) or employed part time (2.2) than those employed full time (0.8). Compared with 2018-2019, psychological distress in 2020 also further increased among young adults residing in the most deprived areas (4.1 vs 1.2 in the least deprived areas). In 2020, losing one's job or most of one's work hours was associated with higher psychological distress and attenuated the differences between deprivation quartiles by 17%. CONCLUSION: In England, inequalities in psychological distress among young adults may have changed and increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Investing in opportunities for young adults, particularly in more deprived areas, may be key to improve population levels of mental health.

Changes in Patterns of Social Role Combinations at Ages 25-26 among Those Growing Up in England between 1996 and 2015-16: Evidence from the 1970 British Cohort and Next Steps Studies.

Changes across education, employment, and family life over the past 20 years challenges the capacity of previously established social role combinations to continue representing the experiences of young men and women born since the late 1980s. Latent class analysis was used to derive patterns of role combinations at ages 25-26 in those growing up in England, using data from 3191 men and 3921 women in the 1970 British Cohort Study (1996) and 3426 men and 4281 women in the Next Steps study born in 1989-90 (2015-16). Role combinations in 1996 were well defined by five patterns across genders: educated, work-oriented, traditional family, fragile family, and slow starters. Patterns in 2015-16 diverged across genders (e.g., disappearance of home ownership in the traditional family group among men and higher education as a group identifier among women) and included across genders fewer work-oriented, more slow starters, and a new group of "left behind" who are excluded from work and relationships. Young men and women born around 1990 experienced diverging role combinations characterized by increased delays and inequalities, with fewer being able to attain the milestones traditionally associated with the transition to adulthood by the mid-20s.

Trends in young adults' mental distress and its association with employment: Evidence from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 1993-2019.

Few have examined how employment is linked to trends in mental health among young adults across economic contexts in more recent years. To better understand the burden of non-employment and mental distress in this age group, this study examines the association of short-term (<1 year) and long-term (1+ year) out-of-work status with mental health across three recessions among young men and women ages 18-34. We report sex-stratified estimates of frequent mental distress (FMD), out-of-work status, and their association through adjusted prevalence ratios across 27 cycles of the U.S. Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (1993-2019). We found that FMD increased by 112% in men and 120% in women between 1993 and 2019, with 55% (men) and 44% (women) of this increase occurring between 2016 and 2019. Short-term (PR men = 1.53, 95%CI 1.46-1.61; PR women = 1.34, 95%CI 1.29-1.40) and long-term (PR men = 1.61, 95%CI 1.51-1.71; PR women = 1.28, 95%CI 1.22-1.34) out-of-work status were each associated with a higher risk of FMD during this period. The magnitude of associations between long-term out-of-work status and FMD significantly varied across cycles, and was strongest after the 1991 recession in men and the 2008 recession in women. Whereas employment represents an important determinant of mental health among young adults, particularly during economic downturns, it did not suffice to explain the rise in mental distress in this age group in more recent years.

Towards an Integrative Taxonomy of Social-Emotional Competences.

Social-emotional competences are critical for positive development and significantly predict educational and occupational attainment, health, and well-being. There is however a lack of consensus about the number of core competences, and how these are defined and operationalized. This divergence in approach challenges future research as well as the scientific usefulness of the construct. In an effort to create an integrative framework, this focused review evaluates different approaches of conceptualizing and assessing social-emotional competences. Building on shared conceptions, an integrative taxonomy "DOMASEC" is introduced, specifying core domains and manifestations of social-emotional competences that bridge across frameworks focusing on social and emotional learning, personality traits (such as the Big Five) and self-determination theory. Core domains include intrapersonal, interpersonal and task-oriented competencies, differentiating between affective, cognitive, and behavioral manifestations of competences across these domains. It is argued that the integrative taxonomy facilitates the conceptual specification of key constructs, that it helps to better organize the multitude of terms and definitions used, and to guide the conceptualization and operationalization of social-emotional competences and their various facets.

Making it against the odds: How individual and parental co-agency predict educational mobility.

INTRODUCTION: This study examines the role of individual agency and parental co-agency as resource factors enabling educational mobility (university enrolment and degree completion) among first-generation students. METHODS: The study is based on Next Steps, a nationally representative cohort of UK students. Path models were run, linking different dimensions of agency assessed at age 13/14 to educational attainment by age 25/26, controlling for academic attainment and socio-demographic factors. RESULTS: Educational mobility was predicted by student's expectation to go to university, their expectation of success, and school engagement during secondary school. In addition, parental co-agency played a significant role - highlighting the importance of parents in supporting upward educational mobility of their children. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple dimensions of agency are necessary for disadvantaged students to achieve academically. To support first-generation students, schools need to provide opportunities for them to become engaged in education, to experience mastery and to develop realistic expectations of success.

Incongruence between parental and adolescent educational aspirations hinders academic attainment.

Previous research has shown that parental educational aspirations for their children are an important predictor of children's academic attainment. However, recent studies have pointed to potential negative effects, in particular if there is a mismatch between parental educational aspirations and the aspirations of their children. This study examines (1) the role of socio-demographic and school achievement-related factors in shaping a potential (mis)match between parental educational aspirations and the aspirations of their children, and (2) whether incongruence between parental and their children's educational aspirations hinders academic attainment in times of social change. We use data collected for the 1970 British Birth Cohort Study (BCS70) and Next Steps (formerly known as the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England), a cohort of young people born in 1989/90. We find that in both cohorts socio-demographic and achievement-related characteristics are associated with incongruent aspirations, and that incongruent aspirations between parents and their children are associated with a decreased likelihood of participating in and completing higher education. The study contributes to current debates regarding the causes and correlates of discrepancies in educational aspirations and how such discrepancies affect later life chances.

Self-control in early childhood: Individual differences in sensitivity to early parenting.

OBJECTIVE: This study extends existing research on the role of infant temperament as a moderator of the association between the quality of parent-child relationships and children's self-control during the pre-school years. In particular, we focus on the potential moderating role of a dimension of early infant temperament known as behavioral inhibition. Assumptions formulated within the diathesis-stress, the vantage-sensitivity, and the differential susceptibility models of individual differences in environmental sensitivity are tested. METHOD: Data are from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative birth cohort of 18,552 infants born in the United Kingdom during 2000/01. RESULTS: The results show that the quality of both mother-child and father-child relationships are associated with children's development of self-control in early childhood. Additionally, individual differences in infant temperament moderate the association between mother-child conflict and children's development of self-control. Specifically, high behavioral inhibition shows a vantage-sensitivity pattern for mother-child conflict. CONCLUSIONS: Aspects of both mothers' and fathers' relationships with their young children independently predict variations in self-control. This study also provides an initial indication that behavioral inhibition, a temperamental trait best-known for being a risk factor for anxiety, may provide small benefits in relation to young children's self-control development.

Can Individual Agency Compensate for Background Disadvantage? Predicting Tertiary Educational Attainment among Males and Females.

Adolescent agency has been identified as a central aspect in the study of social mobility and status attainment. There is however still a lack of understanding of (a) how different SES dimensions influence the expression of multiple dimensions of agency; (b) the interplay of SES and adolescent agency in shaping adult outcomes; and (c) variations in these associations by gender. Focusing on educational mobility, this study adopts a multiple exposure multiple outcome approach specifying the associations between multiple SES dimensions and multiple indicators of domain-specific agency and their relative role as predictors of educational attainment, also testing for potential gender differences. The study draws on data collected for the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, comprising 6719 individuals born in 1989/90 (48% female; 85% first generation students; 15% ethnic minority status). The findings show that multiple SES indicators independently influence the expression of different agency dimensions, in particular regarding educational intentions and success expectations. Moreover, multiple dimensions of education-related agency are significant predictors of enrolment in university by age 20 and degree completion by age 25, after controlling for family SES, ethnicity, and prior academic attainment. The evidence points to mainly independent agency effects and provides some support for compensatory effects regarding school engagement. Although females report higher levels of education-related agency, the manifestation of agency benefits both males and females equally. The findings suggest that critical insights into social mobility processes can be gained when using more complex models that take into account multiple dimensions of SES and agency and their interactions over time.

Health and voting over the course of adulthood: Evidence from two British birth cohorts.

Systematic differences in voter turnout limit the capacity of public institutions to address the needs of under-represented groups. One critical question relates to the role of health as a mechanism driving these inequalities. This study explores the associations of self-rated health (SRH) and limitations in everyday activities with voting over the course of adulthood in the 1958 National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. We used data from participants who reported voting in the last general election at least once between the ages of 23 and 55 in the 1958 cohort and between the ages of 30 and 42 in the 1970 cohort. We examined associations controlling for a range of early-life and adult circumstances using random-effects models. Compared with those in good or better health: those in fair health had 15% and 18% lower odds of voting in the 1958 and 1970 cohorts; those in poor or worse health had 17% and 32% lower odds of voting in the 1958 and 1970 cohorts. These effects varied with age and were most marked among those in poor health at the ages of 23/30 in the 1958 and 1970 cohorts. Controlling for SRH, having limitations in everyday activities was not associated with voting in main models. Examining age-based differences, however, we found that reporting limitations was associated with a higher probability of voting at the age of 55 in the 1958 cohort and at the age of 30 in the 1970 cohort. Building on the qualities of the British birth cohorts, we offer nuanced evidence about the role of health on voting, which involves considerable life-course processes. Future studies need to examine how these findings progress after the age of 55, extend to mental wellbeing and health practices, and contribute to explain social inequalities in voter turnout.