Child mental health and educational attainment: Longitudinal evidence from the UK

Abstract

There has been a recent spike in children's mental health problems and lost learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This study assesses the relationship between social, emotional and behavioural problems and academic attainment across the whole of mainstream schooling (ages 5–16). It uses a rich longitudinal dataset from the UK linked to national data on school records (N = 7,219), individual fixed effects, and repeated measures of mental health and attainment. It finds that within-individual changes in mental health across childhood predict changes in attainment, with hyperactivity and inattention the behaviours most strongly linked to adverse attainment outcomes. These difficulties are disproportionately seen in summer-born boys and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The negative relationship with attainment strengthens as children progress through school, and affects children with problems mild enough that they would never be diagnosed. Schools and health services can gain important insights about a child's educational trajectory based on brief behavioural information obtained from parents.