Co-occurring Academic and Mental Health Problems in High School: A Longitudinal Study

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  • March 20, 2019
Creator
  • Wang, Lin
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology
Abstract
  • This study takes an interdisciplinary approach to co-occurring academic and mental health problems, with special attention to the interdependent, individual-level processes that underlie academic success, difficulty, or disability. The objective of the substantive chapters is to provide a greater understanding of developmental processes, linking mechanisms, and consequences of such joint occurrences using Add Health data and a variety of methods. This study finds that academic difficulties persistently lead to internalizing and externalizing problems during high school. However, the effect of academic problems on depression decreases while its effect on delinquency grows over time. On the other hand, mental health problems also increase the size of academic problems throughout high school, although their effects remain relatively low over time. This study also demonstrates that gendered risks of internalizing and externalizing problems found in previous studies are present in academic settings. In addition, this study shows that higher self-esteem and an internal locus of control generally protect the adolescents from both internalizing and externalizing problems. Their protective effect is even stronger against depression when adolescents face academic difficulties. This study also provides very clear evidence that self-esteem and locus of control are related to the types of mental health problems adolescents tend to experience, e.g., boys and girls with high esteem tend to have externalizing problems more than internalizing problems and girls with high mastery are more likely to have internalizing problems than externalizing problems. However, self-esteem and mastery is not found to affect the tendency of depressed effect versus delinquent behavior in situations of academic stress. Instead, these coping resources contribute directly to the gendered risks of different types of mental health problems. Finally, this study illustrates that an increasing academic performance trajectory is associated with a greater likelihood of entering a 2-year or 4-year college and the effects of SES and parenting are partially mediated by mental health. Furthermore, gender differences in college attendance are found to be partly explained by gender differences in the risk of internalizing and externalizing problems.
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  • In Copyright
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  • "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Sociology.”
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  • Thoits, Peggy A.
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  • Chapel Hill, NC
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  • Open access
Date uploaded
  • March 18, 2013

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