Mental health and educational achievement in UK adolescents

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Educational achievement at the end of compulsory education has strong links with important aspects of adult life such as employment, health, and social functioning worldwide. In the UK, a recent review from the Department of Education concluded that without achieving a 'pass' (A*-C grade, or 9-5 grade nowadays) in maths and English exams, adolescents will not be considered for higher education and face poor employment prospects. This has important implications, as in 2013 over one-quarter of UK adolescents left school without these grades. Therefore, it is important to conduct research intended to understand and to minimise educational failure in secondary school.The mechanisms that affect educational achievement remain unclear to a large extent nowadays, although the role of mental health is increasingly acknowledged. This project will implement novel analysis approaches using one of the excellent data resources available in the UK, in order to elucidate the relationship between depressed mood and school grades at secondary school, which has thus far not been examined in this manner within educational research. Moreover, we will look at the impact of depressed mood and educational failure during secondary school on full-time education and employment status in late adolescence and early adulthood. In this project, we will address a wide range of relevant research questions about the relationship between depression and school grades in adolescence and educational/employment statuses in early adulthood. Results from previous studies suggest a nonlinear relationship between depression and grades in adolescence, which means that academic performance might not decrease proportionally as depressive symptoms increase. Moreover, we aim to identify which characteristics of the child, family, school and area can be used to identify children at high risk of suffering educational/employment impacts from depressed mood. In other words, we are looking for risk and protective factors that should be considered when mental health screenings are conducted in secondary schools in the UK. Furthermore, we will explore the hypothesis that both depressed mood and educational failure have an impact on each other. Another goal of this project is to determine the critical periods, both in terms of short- and long-term effects, in our relationships of interest, and the individuals at high risk. For instance, we will use data from the same children at different periods to find out the stage or age at which occurrence of depression is most likely to be associated with negative consequences such as educational failure at the end of secondary school. This will shed some light on when screenings should be scheduled in schools and who are the most vulnerable children who should be prioritised for intervention.To fulfil the goals of this project, we will need to use large, high-quality databases. Fortunately, the UK has world-leading data resources that will allow us to address our research questions appropriately. We plan to use data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents And Children (ALSPAC). The ALSPAC study has chartered the health of 14,500 families in the Bristol area since the early 90s. This is a unique case amongst large sample UK longitudinal studies, as it provides child data year on year. The richness of this data resource will make it possible to examine the relationship between depression and educational achievement at different stages, and to look at previous records for individuals who experience negative outcomes in early adulthood, such as educational failure and unemployment. Most of the team members have previous experience analysing ALSPAC data, which will facilitate the process of data access and data manipulation.