The long shadow of childhood mental health problems

Abstract

The long shadow of childhood mental health problems Dr Niamh Dooley and Professor Mary Cannon explore what young adult life looks like for individuals who had mental health problems as children. People who suffer with their mental health in childhood are at greater risk of poor mental health in adulthood. What is less well known is that they are also at greater risk of other poor outcomes such as substance misuse, physical health problems, loneliness, and unemployment. In 2011, a classic study by Alissa Goodman and colleagues showed that poor childhood mental health was linked much more strongly to poor socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood than poor childhood physical health. (1) The past ten years of research broadly support those findings. (2-4)