- Impact of cohort research
- Alcohol consumption
- Aspirations at school
- Cohorts and crime
- Diet at an early age
- Emotional wellbeing
- Escaping childhood poverty
- Family separation
- Impact of smoking on newborns
- Maternal stress in pregnancy
- Rising obesity
- Social disadvantage and health
- Social mobility
- Teenage parents
Emotional wellbeing - the need for early intervention
Birth cohort evidence revealed that mental disorders among young people increased from 1974 to 1999 [1]. Between 1974 and 1999 there was an increase in conduct disorders for both genders and an increase in emotional problems between 1986-99.
Early mental health problems can have a range of serious consequences in later life, including emotional problems in adulthood, poor educational achievement, lower earnings, marital problems, teenage parenthood and contact with the criminal justice system. Unlike physical health conditions that tend to increase with age, mental health problems frequently start early in life.
Birth cohort evidence revealed that many young adults with psychiatric disorders had problems that could have been identified earlier in life. Studies showed that of those with mental health problems at twenty-six, half had first met diagnostic criteria identifying a psychiatric disorder by fifteen.
Decision makers responded to these findings with a commitment in the National Service Framework for Children and Young People and Maternity Services programmes [2] to undertake early intervention to prevent worsening mental health problems emerging in adulthood. Birth cohort evidence has also been used to inform the Government's New Horizons strategy to promote good mental health and wellbeing.
