Children with poor mental health are two-thirds more likely to have reduced ability to work as adults, finds IPPR

Preventative investment in children's mental health crucial to reducing long-term barriers to work, says think tank 

Children with severe mental or behavioural issues are almost twice as likely to have symptoms of depression in mid-life and two-thirds more likely to have limited ability to work, according to new research from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). 

Extensive new analysis by the think tank, following individuals born in a single week in 1970 throughout their lives, finds that mental health problems at age 10 have significant implications 40 years on.  

The authors found that children with severe mental and behavioural problems are 85 per cent more likely to have symptoms of depression at age 51 and 68 per cent more likely to have a long-term condition that impacts their ability to work. 

The correlation also extends to poor physical health, as children with a physical health problem are 38 per cent more likely to have limited capacity for work later in life.  

The health of children doesn't just affect their work prospects later in life, but affects those around them in the here and now. For every four children developing a long-term health condition, one of their mothers is likely to leave the workforce altogether. 

As one in five children in England currently have a probable mental health issue, and one in four are obese due to lack of access to healthy, affordable food where they live. These are burgeoning pressures on public services now, and in the future. The researchers say it is a social and economic imperative to improve children's health. 

The findings underscore the long-term impacts of untreated mental or behavioural issues and highlight the urgent need for early intervention to prevent soaring demand on the NHS, council services and social security system. IPPR says significant investment, regulation and political action is needed, including: 

• Targeting investment on high-impact, cost-saving interventions that can deliver early wins, such as adolescent mental health support for 14-19 year olds soon to enter the labour market 

• Introducing a children's investment standard to safeguard spending on children and ‘hardwire' preventative spending in the NHS and other public services 

• More focused and visible leadership on children's health through a dedicated Children's Unit and an expanded role for the Children's Commissioner, and clear, singular accountability to overcome decades of policy fragmentation. 

Dr Jamie O'Halloran, senior research fellow at IPPR, said: 

“The earlier we address both physical and mental health challenges children, the more likely we can prevent costly health conditions and worklessness later in life. This is not just a matter of improving individual lives, but also of alleviating long-term pressures on the state.” 

Amy Gandon, IPPR associate fellow and former senior DHSC official on children's health, said: 

“Successive governments have failed to face up to the long-term consequences of poor child health. If this government is serious about building a preventative state, it must act decisively to improve the prospects of our children and young people. 

“What's more, the dividends from doing so need not be decades away; the right action now – for example, for those joining the workforce within a few years - can deliver better health, opportunity and growth within this Parliament." 

ENDS 

NOTES TO EDITORS 

• The data used is from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which follows individuals born in a single week in 1970 across England, Scotland, and Wales. We used logistic regression to explore the relationship between mental and behavioural problems in childhood—measured using the Rutter A Scale (a precursor to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire see McElroy et al 2020 for further reading)—and health outcomes in adulthood. These outcomes include psychological distress, assessed using the Malaise Inventory (with higher scores indicating a likelihood of exhibiting depressive symptoms), and the presence of a long-term physical or mental health condition that affects the type or amount of work a person can do.
• We control for a number of variables that relate to childhood circumstance includinghousehold income at birth, education of the father, social class of the father, smoking status of the mother during pregnancy and marital status at birth. To account for sample attrition over time, we applied inverse probability weighting.