ReviewJournal of epidemiology and community health2019
How do early-life factors explain social inequalities in adolescent mental health? Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
Review in Journal of epidemiology and community health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 72 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mediators of socioeconomic inequalities in preterm birth: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2022Pooled it
- Early Parenting and Infant-Parent Attachment: Developmental Origins of Psychotic Experiences.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
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- Adolescent mental health and social inequality in the aftermath of COVID-19 in Bogotá, Colombia: a qualitative study using a critical ecological model.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Causal mediation approaches for understanding pathways to inequalities and policy entry points: examples from early years health and development.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2026Article
- Food-Body-Mind study protocol: A mindfulness-based lifestyle intervention to promote whole child health among preschoolers from economically marginalized families.Contemporary clinical trials · 2026Article
- Perceived emotional support mediates the association between childhood family adversity and adolescent mental health in the UK millennium cohort.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- SEL4@ll program for social and emotional development among European adolescents: a study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Does household income predict health and educational outcomes in childhood better than neighbourhood deprivation?Journal of public health (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Article
- Article
- A Scoping Review of Family-Based Prevention Strategies in Adolescent Mental Health.Psychology research and behavior management · 2025Review
- Social inequalities in child mental health trajectories: a longitudinal study using birth cohort data 12 countries.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Predicting Risk of Bullying Victimization among Primary and Secondary School Students: Based on a Machine Learning Model.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The Impact of Place-Based Approaches Addressing Mental Health and Substance Use Among Adolescents: A Systematic Review of the Literature.Public health reviews · 2024Review
- Changes in Early Childhood Irritability and Its Association With Depressive Symptoms and Self-Harm During Adolescence in a Nationally Representative United Kingdom Birth Cohort.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2024Article
- Psychosocial health and quality of life in ICSI and naturally conceived adolescents: a cross-sectional comparison.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2023Article
- Does cumulative adverse socioeconomic exposure mediate the association of maternal mental ill health at birth and adolescent mental ill health at age 17? An analysis of the Millennium Cohort Study.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2023Article
- Parent-adolescent informant discrepancy on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in the UK Millennium Cohort Study.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2023Article
- The Different Roles of Structural and Cognitive Social Capital on Oral Health-Related Quality of Life among Adolescents.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundReducing inequalities in adolescent mental health is a public health priority, yet the pathways that link social conditions to mental health outcomes in the early years are unclear. We aimed to evaluate the extent to which early years risk factors explain social inequalities in adolescent mental health in the UK.
methodsWe analysed data from 6509 children captured in the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Mental health was assessed through the socioemotional behavioural problems at age 14 (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire). The main exposure was maternal education at birth, used as a measure of childhood socioeconomic conditions (SECs), and used to calculate the relative index of inequality. Using causal mediation analysis, we assessed how perinatal, individual child, family, peer relation and neighbourhood-level factors measured up to age 3-mediated the total effect (TE) of SECs on adolescent socioemotional behavioural problems, estimating the proportion mediated and natural indirect effect (NIE) via each block of mediators, and all mediators together.
resultsChildren of mothers with no qualification were almost four times as likely to have socioemotional behavioural problems compared with degree plus level (relative risk (RR) 3.82, 95% CI 2.48 to 5.88). Overall, 63.9% (95% CI 50.2% to 77.6%) (NIE RR 1.97, 95% CI 1.63 to 2.37) of the TE (RR 4.40, 95% CI 3.18 to 6.07) of social inequalities on risk of adolescent socioemotional behavioural problems was mediated by early-life factors.
conclusionsAbout two-thirds of the social inequality in adolescent mental health was explained by early risk factors measured by age 3, highlighting the importance of public health interventions in this period.
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