Centre for Mental Health

Mental ill health in childhood casts a long shadow over adult life chances, says major new study

7 May 2009

Children and adolescents with conduct problems have relatively worse prospects throughout their adult life, according to a major national study published today by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, the Medical Research Council (MRC), the Smith Institute and Unison.

Childhood mental health and life chances in post-war Britain is based on new findings from three national studies of the lives of people born in 1946, 1958 and 1970.

It finds that mental health problems in children and teenagers have a significant impact on their chances of success in employment and family life as well as contact with the criminal justice system.

Conduct problems have the most dramatic impact. People with conduct problems in adolescence were at double the risk of leaving school with no qualifications. They were more likely to be out of work or low paid, to become teenage parents and to be divorced later in life. And those with severe conduct problems were four times more likely than average to have been arrested by the police by the age of 30.

Emotional problems also have a major impact. Girls with severe emotional problems were three times more likely to experience mental ill health as adults. But emotional problems slightly reduced the chances of contact with the police and had little effect on chances in employment.

Marcus Richards, of the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, said: "We have found clear evidence of the serious, life-long effects of childhood conduct and emotional problems. There is an especially strong link between childhood conduct problems and a range of poor outcomes in adult life. And while severe problems have the biggest impact on individuals, mild conduct problems are a lot more common and can cast a long shadow over people's lives."

Angela Greatley, chief executive of Sainsbury Centre, said: "Childhood conduct problems impose massive long-term costs on individuals, communities and society. But it need not be this way. We know that early mental health problems can be identified from a young age. We need to invest in proven interventions to help children and their families, to prevent conduct problems where possible and to manage them when they arise."

Paul Hackett, director of the Smith Institute, said: "This important study of real lives over time provides further evidence of the need for politicians from all parties to think longer term about the way public policies are shaped to tackle mental ill health in our society. The research shows that there are significant benefits from an 'early interventionist' approach, and that failure to tackle childhood mental health problems has a disproportionate impact on a person adult life chances."

Watch Angela Greatley, our chief executive, introducing the report:

Childhood mental health and life chances in post-war Britain: Insights from three national birth cohort studies is published today by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health in association with the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing, the Smith Institute and Unison.

The 1946, 1958 and 1970 birth cohort studies collect data on the lives of people born in one week across Great Britain in each of those years. Information about conduct and emotional problems was collected from teachers and parents at age 16 for all three cohorts and at age 5 for those born in 1970.