IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v64y2007i11p2285-2296.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Childhood cognitive ability and adult mental health in the British 1946 birth cohort

Author

Listed:
  • Hatch, Stephani L.
  • Jones, Peter B.
  • Kuh, Diana
  • Hardy, Rebecca
  • Wadsworth, Michael E.J.
  • Richards, Marcus

Abstract

We examined whether childhood cognitive ability was associated with two mental health outcomes at age 53 years: the 28 item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) as a measure of internalising symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the CAGE screen for potential alcohol abuse as an externalising disorder. A total of 1875 participants were included from the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development, also known as the British 1946 birth cohort. The results indicated that higher childhood cognitive ability was associated with reporting fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression GHQ-28 scores in women, and increased risk of potential alcohol abuse in both men and women. Results were adjusted for educational attainment, early socioeconomic status (SES) and adverse circumstances, and adult SES, adverse circumstances, and negative health behaviours. After adjusting for childhood cognitive ability, greater educational attainment was associated with reporting greater symptoms of anxiety and depression on the GHQ-28. Although undoubtedly interrelated, our evidence on the diverging effects of childhood cognitive ability and educational attainment on anxiety and depression in mid-adulthood highlights the need for the two to be considered independently. While higher childhood cognitive ability is associated with fewer internalising symptoms of anxiety and depression in women, it places both men and women at higher risk for potential alcohol abuse. Further research is needed to examine possible psychosocial mechanisms that may be associated with both higher childhood cognitive ability and greater risk for alcohol abuse. In addition, the underlying mechanisms responsible for the gender-specific link between childhood cognitive ability and the risk of experiencing internalising disorders in mid-adulthood warrants further consideration.

Suggested Citation

  • Hatch, Stephani L. & Jones, Peter B. & Kuh, Diana & Hardy, Rebecca & Wadsworth, Michael E.J. & Richards, Marcus, 2007. "Childhood cognitive ability and adult mental health in the British 1946 birth cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(11), pages 2285-2296, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:11:p:2285-2296
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00076-7
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wadsworth, M. E. J. & Butterworth, S. L. & Hardy, R. J. & Kuh, D. J. & Richards, M. & Langenberg, C. & Hilder, W. S. & Connor, M., 2003. "The life course prospective design: an example of benefits and problems associated with study longevity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(11), pages 2193-2205, December.
    2. Kuh, Diana & Hardy, Rebecca & Rodgers, Bryan & Wadsworth, Michael E. J., 2002. "Lifetime risk factors for women's psychological distress in midlife," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(11), pages 1957-1973, December.
    3. Kaltiala-Heino, Riittakerttu & Marttunen, Mauri & Rantanen, Päivi & Rimpelä, Matti, 2003. "Early puberty is associated with mental health problems in middle adolescence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 1055-1064, September.
    4. Guang Guo & Kathleen Harris, 2000. "The mechanisms mediating the effects of poverty on children’s intellectual development," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 37(4), pages 431-447, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Burhan, Nik Ahmad Sufian & Salleh, Fauzilah & Burhan, Nik Mohd Ghazi, 2015. "National Intelligence and Private Health Expenditure: Do High IQ Societies Spend More on Health Insurance?," MPRA Paper 77328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Huerta, Maria C. & Borgonovi, Francesca, 2010. "Education, alcohol use and abuse among young adults in Britain," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 143-151, July.
    3. Carter, Jennifer L. & Richards, Marcus & Hotopf, Matthew & Hatch, Stephani L., 2019. "The roles of non-cognitive and cognitive skills in the life course development of adult health inequalities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 190-198.
    4. Catharine R Gale & Rachel Cooper & Leone Craig & Jane Elliott & Diana Kuh & Marcus Richards & John M Starr & Lawrence J Whalley & Ian J Deary, 2012. "Cognitive Function in Childhood and Lifetime Cognitive Change in Relation to Mental Wellbeing in Four Cohorts of Older People," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(9), pages 1-9, September.
    5. Kiyuri Naicker & Maeve Wickham & Ian Colman, 2012. "Timing of First Exposure to Maternal Depression and Adolescent Emotional Disorder in a National Canadian Cohort," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-6, March.
    6. Eva M Kingma & Peter de Jonge & Pim van der Harst & Johan Ormel & Judith G M Rosmalen, 2012. "The Association between Intelligence and Telomere Length: A Longitudinal Population Based Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(11), pages 1-6, November.
    7. Koltai, Jonathan & Bierman, Alex & Schieman, Scott, 2018. "Financial circumstances, mastery, and mental health: Taking unobserved time-stable influences into account," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 108-116.
    8. John Robert Warren, 2016. "Does Growing Childhood Socioeconomic Inequality Mean Future Inequality in Adult Health?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 663(1), pages 292-330, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mishra, Gita & Kuh, Diana, 2006. "Perceived change in quality of life during the menopause," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 93-102, January.
    2. Robert Stewart & Rebecca Hardy & Marcus Richards, 2015. "Associations between Skeletal Growth in Childhood and Cognitive Function in Mid-Life in a 53-Year Prospective Birth Cohort Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(4), pages 1-10, April.
    3. Yuyuan Chang & Wen He & Jianling Wang, 2021. "Government Initiated Corporate Social Responsibility Activities: Evidence from a Poverty Alleviation Campaign in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(4), pages 661-685, November.
    4. Schlee, Bethanne M. & Mullis, Ann K. & Shriner, Michael, 2009. "Parents social and resource capital: Predictors of academic achievement during early childhood," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 227-234, February.
    5. Berger, Lawrence M. & Paxson, Christina & Waldfogel, Jane, 2009. "Income and child development," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 978-989, September.
    6. Syariful Muttaqin & Hsueh-Hua Chuang & Ching-Hui Lin & Ming-Min Cheng, 2022. "When Proficiency and Education Matter: The Mediating Role of English Proficiency and Moderating Effect of Parents’ Education in the SES–Academic Achievement Relationship During EMI," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.
    7. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Nicolás Salamanca & Anna Zhu, 2019. "Parenting style as an investment in human development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1315-1352, October.
    8. Cave, Sophie Nicole & Wright, Megan & von Stumm, Sophie, 2022. "Change and stability in the association of parents' education with children's intelligence," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Lotta Uusitalo-Malmivaara & Juhani Lehto, 2013. "Social Factors Explaining Children’s Subjective Happiness and Depressive Symptoms," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(2), pages 603-615, April.
    10. Emilia Del Bono & Marco Francesconi & Yvonne Kelly & Amanda Sacker, 2016. "Early Maternal Time Investment and Early Child Outcomes," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 96-135, October.
    11. Kilburn, Kelly & Handa, Sudhanshu & Angeles, Gustavo & Mvula, Peter & Tsoka, Maxton, 2017. "Short-term impacts of an unconditional cash transfer program on child schooling: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 63-80.
    12. Frida Skog, 2019. "Sibling Effects on Adult Earnings Among Poor and Wealthy Children Evidence from Sweden," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 12(3), pages 917-942, June.
    13. Christina Gibson, 2001. "Privileging the Participant: The Importance of Take-Up Rates In Social Welfare Evaluations," Working Papers 968, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    14. Colleen Heflin & Michah W. Rothbart & Mattie Mackenzie-Liu, 2022. "Below the Tip of the Iceberg: Examining Early Childhood Participation in SNAP and TANF from Birth to Age Six," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(2), pages 729-755, April.
    15. Kate Choi & Amy Hsin & Sara McLanahan, 2013. "Asian Children’s Verbal Development: A Comparison of Three Countries," Working Papers wp13-16-ff, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    16. Mara Violato & Stavros Petrou & Ron Gray & Maggie Redshaw, 2011. "Family income and child cognitive and behavioural development in the United Kingdom: does money matter?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(10), pages 1201-1225, October.
    17. Bruce Bradbury & Jane Waldfogel & Elizabeth Washbrook, 2019. "Income-Related Gaps in Early Child Cognitive Development: Why Are They Larger in the United States Than in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(1), pages 367-390, February.
    18. repec:iae:iaewps:wp2016n3 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Paul Frijters & David Johnston & Manisha Shah & Michael Shields, 2013. "Intrahousehold Resource Allocation: Do Parents Reduce or Reinforce Child Ability Gaps?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2187-2208, December.
    20. Kirkøen, Benedicte & Engell, Thomas & Follestad, Ingvild B. & Holen, Solveig & Hagen, Kristine Amlund, 2021. "Early academic struggles among children with home-based support from child welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    21. Elizabeth Cavadel & Avery Hennigar & Robert G. Wood & Lane Ritchie & Katie Hunter, "undated". "Measuring Child Well-Being in Evaluations of Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood Programs," Mathematica Policy Research Reports de78f9c61a97444f91a70d69a, Mathematica Policy Research.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:11:p:2285-2296. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.