Younger Pupils Face Mental Health Risks

Aug. 28, 2003 -- Being the youngest kid in the class may not only make a child a teasing target, but it could increase their risk of developing mental health problems.

A new British study shows that the youngest schoolchildren in a single grade are more likely to have symptoms of mental disorders than their older classmates.

Researchers say the findings suggest that a more flexible approach to children's progression through school might be needed, and teachers should be more aware of the relative ages of their students in order to help prevent possible mental health problems.

Younger Children May Suffer

For the study, which appears in the British Medical Journal, researchers surveyed more than 10,000 5- to 15-year-olds in England, Scotland, and Wales. The survey contained questions that revealed aspects of the children's emotions, behavior, activity levels, peer relationships, and social behavior.

They found that younger children within a school year were significantly more likely to have symptoms of a mental health problem or a psychiatric disorder than older children. Depression and anxiety are two of the most common.

In England and Wales, the oldest children in each grade are born in September and the youngest are born in August. A different system exists in Scotland, where the oldest children are born in March and the youngest in February.

Researchers found that despite these seasonal age differences, a similar trend existed among all the children surveyed. The age of the children relative to their peers had a larger influence on their mental health than the season of their birth.

"When thinking about individual children, the effects of relative age will generally be dwarfed by the much larger effects of well-recognized risk factors such as family discord, adverse life events, or failure at school," write researcher Robert Goodman of King's College London, and colleagues.

But although the effects of relative age may be weak on an individual basis, researchers say they may have important implications on a broader public health level.

The study shows that if all the children had the same level of risk of mental health problems as the older children, the overall prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the U.K. would drop from 9% to 8.3%.