Long term economic impact of childhood emotional and behavioural problems

本研究将评估儿童和青少年在成年后经历的心理健康问题对经济的影响。心理健康问题在儿童和年轻人中很常见，众所周知，这些问题可能会对成年后产生长期影响。这些影响在短期内（例如，通过保健和教育支助的费用）以及在成年期和整个生命周期内（例如，由于持续的困难、失去收入和失业而在成年期使用服务）都会产生经济后果。关于早期困难与成年后经济影响之间关系的信息有限。现有的研究只关注短期影响，或者关注特定的社区或类型的精神障碍。研究将使用来自三个英国出生队列的数据，提供1946年、1958年和1970年出生的人的详细信息。从这些人群的出生到一生收集了数据，包括关于他们的心理健康、使用心理健康服务、教育、就业和收入的信息。将对这些数据进行分析，以了解儿童和年轻人的心理健康问题如何与成年后的不同结果相关联。我们的研究分为四个部分：首先，我们将分析与儿童心理健康问题相关的经济影响，直到成年中期和后期，通过观察儿童时期的困难如何与成年后的具体事件联系起来（例如，使用心理健康问题服务，与刑事司法系统接触，一个人的收入水平，他们是否获得了福利），并计算出这些结果的成本。其次，我们将调查在生命早期出现心理健康问题是否会影响一生中的各种经济影响。什么年龄的开销最大？这些成本模式在个人之间有何不同，例如性别、种族或社会经济群体？某些类型的心理健康问题在以后的生活中会有更高的代价吗？我们还将研究教育、卫生和社会保健政策的变化如何影响成本。第三，我们计划了解和评估早期干预对心理健康问题的长期经济影响的潜力，以及早期干预为节省成本所需要的影响。最后，我们计划将本研究的结果作为未来更详细研究的基础。考虑到这项研究提供的关于童年困难与其成年中期和后期经济影响之间关系的新信息，未来的研究可以更详细地调查这些关联（例如，童年困难的类型，与生命过程中这些困难相关的成本，这些成本的因果途径以及各种心理健康干预措施的益处）。

This study will evaluate the economic impacts in adulthood of mental health problems experienced by children and young people. Mental health problems are common among children and young people and it is known that they can have long lasting effects into adulthood. These effects have economic consequences, both in the short term (e.g., through the costs of health care and educational support) and into adulthood and across the life-span (e.g. service use in adulthood due to continued difficulties, loss of earnings and unemployment). There is only limited information on the relationship between early difficulties and economic impacts in adulthood. Existing studies only look at short-term impacts, or focus on specific communities or types of mental disorder.Data from three British birth cohorts will be used, providing detailed information on people born in 1946, 1958 and 1970. Data have been collected from these groups of people from birth throughout their lives, including information on their mental health, use of mental health services, education, employment and income.These data will be analysed to understand how mental health problems among children and young people are linked to different outcomes during adulthood. Our study has four parts:First, we will analyse the economic impacts up to mid and later adulthood associated with childhood mental health problems, by looking at how childhood difficulties are linked to specific events in adulthood (for example, using services for mental health problems, having been in contact with the criminal justice system, a person's level of income, whether they have received benefits) and work out the costs of these outcomes. Second, we will investigate whether the effects of having a mental health problem early in life influence various economic impacts over the lifespan. At what ages are costs greatest? How do these cost patterns differ among individuals, for example by gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic group? Do some types of mental health problem have higher costs later in life? We will also look at how changes in educational, health and social care policies have influenced costs.Third, we plan to understand and assess the potential for the long term economic effects of early intervention for mental health problems and the impact needed for early interventions to be cost saving. Finally, we plan to use the findings from this research as a basis for more detailed studies in the future. By taking into account the new information this research provides about the relationship between childhood difficulties and their economic impact during mid and later adulthood, future studies can investigate these associations in more detail (for example, types of childhood difficulties, costs associated with these over the life course, causal pathways for these costs and benefits of various mental health interventions).