Ulf Gerdtham
Professor
Adolescent Mental Health: Impact of Introducing Earlier Compulsory School Grades
Författare
Summary, in English
The prevalence of mental ill-health is increasing among young people in many developed countries, raising concerns about their well-being. Experts have pointed to several potential contributing factors, including a heightened emphasis on educational achievement and performance evaluation, as well as shifting demands in the high-skilled job market. In this paper, we study the effect of introducing earlier grades in compulsory school on child mental health in Sweden. To do so, we exploit a grading reform in Swedish compulsory schools in which grades were introduced at an earlier age, in 6th grade instead of 8th grade as was previously the case. The reform provides a situation where the age at which children receive their first grade is arbitrary depending on if the child is born before or after the year-end. We show that girls who are exposed to one year earlier grades are more likely to be diagnosed with depression or anxiety by the end of compulsory school, controlling for potential age effects in a difference-in-discontinuities setup. We do not find similar effects among boys. Overall, these results imply that girls’ mental well-being may be particularly responsive to educational assessment through grades at earlier ages.
Avdelning/ar
- Centrum för ekonomisk demografi
- Hälsoekonomi
- LU profilområde: Proaktivt åldrande
- Nationalekonomiska institutionen
- EpiHealth: Epidemiology for Health
Publiceringsår
2023
Språk
Engelska
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Working Papers
Issue
2023:2
Fulltext
Dokumenttyp
Working paper
Ämne
- Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
- Economics
Nyckelord
- education policy
- school grades
- mental health
- human capital development
- I10
- I21
- I28
Status
Published
Forskningsgrupp
- Health Economics