Mental health improves after transition from comprehensive school to vocational education or employment in England: A national cohort study

Abstract

Underpinned by stage-environment fit and job demands-resources theories, this study examined how adolescents' anxiety, depressive symptoms, and positive functioning developed as they transferred from comprehensive school to further education, employment or training, or became NEET (not in education, employment, or training), at age 16 years, in the longitudinal English national cohort study Next Steps (N ± 13,342). Controlling for childhood achievement, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and gender, we found that NEET adolescents had the largest losses in mental health. This pattern was similar to adolescents staying on at school who had increased anxiety and depression, and decreased positive functioning, after transition. In comparison, adolescents transferring to full-time work, apprenticeships, or vocational college experienced gains in mental health. © 2016 American Psychological Association.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Anxiety School-to-work transition Mental health depression School transition

Index Keywords

Employment female human male procedures questionnaire Humans Surveys and Questionnaires adolescent young adult Vocational education school Schools sex difference analysis of variance mental health cohort analysis England Cohort Studies Sex Factors achievement

Author Affiliations

School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Leinster, Ireland

Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Jena, Thuringen, Germany

School of Public Health, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, United States

Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Helsingin Yliopisto, Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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Mental health improves after transition from comprehensive school to vocational education or employment in England: A national cohort study

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