Abstract
BackgroundMental health problems in adolescence are predictive of future mental distress and psychopathology; however, few studies investigated adolescent mental health problems in relation to future mental wellbeing and none with follow-up to older age.AimsTo test prospective associations between adolescent mental health problems and mental wellbeing and life satisfaction in early old age.MethodsA total of 1561 men and women were drawn from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development (the British 1946 birth cohort). Teachers had previously completed rating scales to assess emotional adjustment and behaviours, which allowed us to extract factors of mental health problems measuring self-organisation, behavioural problems, and emotional problems during adolescence. Between the ages of 60–64 years, mental wellbeing was assessed using the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) and life satisfaction was self-reported using the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS).ResultsAfter controlling for gender, social class of origin, childhood cognitive ability, and educational attainment, adolescent emotional problems were independently inversely associated with mental wellbeing and with life satisfaction. Symptoms of anxiety/depression at 60–64 years explained the association with life satisfaction but not with mental wellbeing. Associations between adolescent self-organisation and conduct problems and mental wellbeing and life satisfaction were of negligible magnitude, but higher childhood cognitive ability significantly predicted poor life satisfaction in early old age.ConclusionsAdolescent self-organisation and conduct problems may not be predictive of future mental wellbeing and life satisfaction. Adolescent emotional problems may be inversely associated with future wellbeing, and may be associated with lower levels of future life satisfaction through symptoms of anxiety/depression in early old age. Initiatives to prevent and treat emotional problems in adolescence may have long-term benefits which extend into older age.
Highlights
Mental health problems in adolescence are predictive of future mental distress and psychopathology; few studies investigated adolescent mental health problems in relation to future mental wellbeing and none with follow-up to older age
Adolescent self-organisation and conduct problems may not be predictive of future mental wellbeing and life satisfaction
Descriptive statistics A total of 1936 study members had complete data on Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) and Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and, of these, 1561 had complete data on adolescent mental health and covariates (Table 1). Those with missing outcomes had more adolescent mental health problems, lower social class assessed by occupational group of father in childhood, lower childhood cognitive ability and lower educational attainment than those who had complete outcome data (All P < 0.01)
Summary
Mental health problems in adolescence are predictive of future mental distress and psychopathology; few studies investigated adolescent mental health problems in relation to future mental wellbeing and none with follow-up to older age. Recent reports from birth cohort studies have indicated that conduct and emotional problems during adolescence, and low self-organisation (defined in terms of ‘effortful regulation of the self by the self ’) [14], may be a significant developmental precursor predicting future mental health problems including substance dependence, depression, and hallucinations [13, 15, 16]. While such empirical evidence leaves no doubt that adolescent mental health problems are associated with poor mental health in later life, to our knowledge no study has investigated adolescent mental health problems in relation to mental wellbeing in later life
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