Child mental health and income gradient from early childhood to adolescence: Evidence from the UK.
Child mental health
Externalising problems
Health inequalities
Income gradient
Internalising problems
Journal
SSM - population health
ISSN: 2352-8273
Titre abrégé: SSM Popul Health
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101678841
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Dec 2023
Dec 2023
Historique:
received:
19
06
2023
revised:
27
09
2023
accepted:
09
10
2023
medline:
13
11
2023
pubmed:
13
11
2023
entrez:
13
11
2023
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Children from low income families are likely to have poorer mental health than their more affluent peers. However, it is unclear how this association varies at different developmental stages and what the potential underpinning mechanisms are. This study investigates the relationship between family income and mental health problems from early childhood to adolescence in the UK, and examines the potential mediating role of family-related factors over time. Data were drawn from the UK Millennium Cohort Study at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14 and 17 years. Child mental health was measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Total Difficulties Score, and the Internalising and Externalising subscales. Family income was operationalised as permanent income. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted at each age to examine the association between income and mental health problems, and to examine potential mechanisms based on the Parental Stress and Parental Investment theories. The samples included 8096 children aged up to 14 years, of which 5667 remained in the study at age 17. Results indicated a statistically significant association between lower family income and poorer mental health in all age groups after adjusting for confounding factors. The strength of the association was reduced after adjustment for Parental Stress and Parental Investment factors, with the larger attenuation driven by Parental Stress factors in most cases. Fully adjusted models suggested an increased independent association between maternal psychological distress and children's mental health as children grew older. While lower family income is associated with a child's poorer mental health, much of this association is explained by other factors such as maternal psychological distress, and therefore the direct association is relatively small. This suggests that policies targeting income redistribution may reduce child mental health problems, and also benefit the wider family, reducing the prevalence of other associated risk factors.
Sections du résumé
Background
UNASSIGNED
Children from low income families are likely to have poorer mental health than their more affluent peers. However, it is unclear how this association varies at different developmental stages and what the potential underpinning mechanisms are. This study investigates the relationship between family income and mental health problems from early childhood to adolescence in the UK, and examines the potential mediating role of family-related factors over time.
Methods
UNASSIGNED
Data were drawn from the UK Millennium Cohort Study at ages 3, 5, 7, 11, 14 and 17 years. Child mental health was measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire Total Difficulties Score, and the Internalising and Externalising subscales. Family income was operationalised as permanent income. Cross-sectional analyses were conducted at each age to examine the association between income and mental health problems, and to examine potential mechanisms based on the Parental Stress and Parental Investment theories.
Results
UNASSIGNED
The samples included 8096 children aged up to 14 years, of which 5667 remained in the study at age 17. Results indicated a statistically significant association between lower family income and poorer mental health in all age groups after adjusting for confounding factors. The strength of the association was reduced after adjustment for Parental Stress and Parental Investment factors, with the larger attenuation driven by Parental Stress factors in most cases. Fully adjusted models suggested an increased independent association between maternal psychological distress and children's mental health as children grew older.
Conclusions
UNASSIGNED
While lower family income is associated with a child's poorer mental health, much of this association is explained by other factors such as maternal psychological distress, and therefore the direct association is relatively small. This suggests that policies targeting income redistribution may reduce child mental health problems, and also benefit the wider family, reducing the prevalence of other associated risk factors.
Identifiants
pubmed: 37954013
doi: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101534
pii: S2352-8273(23)00199-4
pmc: PMC10638036
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
101534Informations de copyright
© 2023 The Authors.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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