Abstract
Participation in higher education has significant and long-lasting consequences for people’s socioeconomic trajectories. Maternal depression is linked to poorer educational achievement for children in school, but its impact on university attendance is unclear.
Methods
In an English longitudinal cohort study (N=8952), we explore whether young people whose mothers experienced elevated depressive symptoms are less likely to study at university, and the role of potential mediators in the young person: educational achievement in school, depressive symptoms, and locus of control. We also examine whether maternal depressive symptoms influence young people’s choice of university, and non-attendees’ reasons for not participating in higher education.
Results
Young people whose mothers experienced more recurrent depressive symptoms were less likely to attend university (OR=0.88, CI:0.82,0.94, pLimitations
Lack of data on co-parental depression, loss to follow-up and possibly selective non- response.
Conclusions
Young people whose mothers experience elevated depressive symptoms on multiple occasions are less likely to participate in higher education, and educational achievement in secondary school substantially mediated the effect. Support for affected children should begin early to mitigate inequalities related to maternal depression.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 339-346 |
| Journal | Journal of Affective Disorders |
| Volume | 344 |
| Early online date | 16 Oct 2023 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2024 |
Funding
This work was supported by the Health Foundation as part of a project entitled “Social and economic consequences of health: Causal inference methods and longitudinal, intergenerational data”, which is part of the Health Foundation 's Social and Economic Value of Health program (grant ID: 807293 ). The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the United Kingdom. AH is supported by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) New Investigator Grant ( ES/X000486/1 ), the University of Bristol and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Integrative Epidemiology Unit ( MC_UU_00011/1 ). TTM is funded by the ESRC ( ES/W013142/1 ). FR is at The Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health, established with support from the Wolfson Foundation . The UK Medical Research Council and Wellcome (Grant ref.: 217065/Z/19/Z ) and the University of Bristol provide core support for ALSPAC. A comprehensive list of grants funding is available on the ALSPAC website ( http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/external/documents/grant-acknowledgements.pdf ); collection of data on higher participation was specifically funded by the Wellcome Trust and MRC (grant reference: 102215/2/13/2 ). This publication is the work of the authors, who will serve as guarantors for the contents of this paper. The funders had no role in study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of data, the writing of the report, or the decision to submit the article for publication.