ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2022
How is the distribution of psychological distress changing over time? Who is driving these changes? Analysis of the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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9 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social determinants of mid-life mental health decline: a life-course analysis from the 1970 British Cohort Study.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- Interpersonal and socio-demographic factors associated with divorce among women of reproductive age in Tanzania: evidence from the 2015-16 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey data.The Pan African medical journal · 2026Article
- Childhood attention deficit hyperactivity disorder traits, societal exclusion and midlife psychological distress.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Article
- A person-oriented approach to social anxiety and depression: latent profiles and emotional functioning in adults.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Mediating mechanisms of the relationship between exposure to deprivation and threat during childhood and adolescent psychopathology: evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- Why do Middle-Aged Adults Report Worse Mental Health and Wellbeing than Younger Adults? An Exploratory Network Analysis of the Swiss Household Panel Data.Applied research in quality of life · 2024Article
- Aging Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: Age Influences Hearing Ability and Interactions between Psychological Phenomena in Patients with Chronic Tinnitus.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
aimsThe main objective of this study was to investigate distributional shifts underlying observed age and cohort differences in mean levels of psychological distress in the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts.
methodsThis study used data from the 1958 and 1970 British birth cohorts (n = 24,707). Psychological distress was measured by the Malaise Inventory at ages 23, 33, 42 and 50 in the 1958 cohort and 26, 34, 42 and 46-48 in the 1970 cohort.
resultsThe shifts in the distribution across age appear to be mainly due to changing proportion of those with moderate symptoms, except for midlife (age 42-50) when we observed polarisation in distress- an increase in proportions of people with no symptoms and multiple symptoms. The elevated levels of distress in the 1970 cohort, compared with the 1958 cohort, appeared to be due to an increase in the proportion of individuals with both moderate and high symptoms. For instance, at age 33/34 42.3% endorsed at least two symptoms in the 1970 cohort vs 24.7% in 1958, resulting in a shift in the entire distribution of distress towards the more severe end of the spectrum.
conclusionsOur study demonstrates the importance of studying not only mean levels of distress over time, but also the underlying shifts in its distribution. Due to the large dispersion of distress scores at any given measurement occasion, understanding the underlying distribution provides a more complete picture of population trends.
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