ArticleBMC public health2024
Social inequalities in child mental health trajectories: a longitudinal study using birth cohort data 12 countries.
Article in BMC public health, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Transdiagnostic child mental health trajectories in Japan: protocol for a nationwide web‑based open cohort study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Factors associated with mental health among young adults: Cross-country longitudinal evidence from Ethiopia, India, and Peru.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- Machine learning and natural language processing for the identification of potential mental disorders among school-age children: a prospective birth cohort study.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Tracing socioeconomic inequalities in children's and adolescent's mental health: longitudinal study findings from 2017 to 2024.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Engaging longitudinal cohort participants in a research priority setting process for the Raine Study.Research involvement and engagement · 2025Article
- Temporal trends and social inequities in adolescent and young adult mental health disorders in Catalonia, Spain: a 2008-2022 primary care cohort study.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2024Article
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28 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundSocial inequalities in child mental health are an important public health concern. Whilst previous studies have examined inequalities at a single time point, very few have used repeated measures outcome data to describe how these inequalities emerge. Our aims were to describe social inequalities in child internalising and externalising problems across multiple countries and to explore how these inequalities change as children age.
methodsWe used longitudinal data from eight birth cohorts containing participants from twelve countries (Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom). The number of included children in each cohort ranged from N = 584 (Greece) to N = 73,042 (Norway), with a total sample of N = 149,604. Child socio-economic circumstances (SEC) were measured using self-reported maternal education at birth. Child mental health outcomes were internalising and externalising problems measured using either the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire or the Child Behavior Checklist. The number of data collection waves in each cohort ranged from two to seven, with the mean child age ranging from two to eighteen years old. We modelled the slope index of inequality (SII) using sex-stratified multi-level models.
resultsFor almost all cohorts, at the earliest age of measurement children born into more deprived SECs had higher internalising and externalising scores than children born to less deprived SECs. For example, in Norway at age 2 years, boys born to mothers of lower education had an estimated 0.3 (95% CI 0.3, 0.4) standard deviation higher levels of internalising problems (SII) compared to children born to mothers with high education. The exceptions were for boys in Australia (age 2) and both sexes in Greece (age 6), where we observed minimal social inequalities. In UK, Denmark and Netherlands inequalities decreased as children aged, however for other countries (France, Norway, Australia and Crete) inequalities were heterogeneous depending on child sex and outcome. For all countries except France inequalities remained at the oldest point of measurement.
conclusionsSocial inequalities in internalising and externalising problems were evident across a range of EU countries, with inequalities emerging early and generally persisting throughout childhood.
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