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Mental Health Predicts Better Academic Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of Elementary School Students in Chile

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Abstract

The world’s largest school-based mental health program, Habilidades para la Vida [Skills for Life (SFL)], has been operating on a national scale in Chile for 15 years. SFL’s activities include using standardized measures to screen elementary school students and providing preventive workshops to students at risk for mental health problems. This paper used SFL’s data on 37,397 students who were in first grade in 2009 and third grade in 2011 to ascertain whether first grade mental health predicted subsequent academic achievement and whether remission of mental health problems predicted improved academic outcomes. Results showed that mental health was a significant predictor of future academic performance and that, overall, students whose mental health improved between first and third grade made better academic progress than students whose mental health did not improve or worsened. Our findings suggest that school-based mental health programs like SFL may help improve students’ academic outcomes.

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Notes

  1. Covariates were first grade variables of percent attendance, gender, family participation in welfare, school identification number, whether the mother was a teenager when the child was born, whether the father was living with the child, whether the child had a chronic illness leading to one or more school absences a month, whether the child was living with a relative disabled by mental illness, and whether the family participated in organized social activities These covariates were included in all of the other analyses reported below.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Yawkey 6A, Boston, MA, 02114, USA

    J. Michael Murphy, Alyssa E. McCarthy, Katia M. Canenguez, Lee Baer & Michael S. Jellinek

  2. Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    J. Michael Murphy, Erin C. Dunn, Lee Baer, Jordan W. Smoller & Michael S. Jellinek

  3. School Health, Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolar y Becas, Santiago, Chile

    Javier Guzmán, Ana María Squicciarini & Ariela Simonsohn

  4. Psychology, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile

    Javier Guzmán

  5. Psychology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Myriam George

  6. Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Erin C. Dunn & Jordan W. Smoller

  7. Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, The Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Erin C. Dunn & Jordan W. Smoller

  8. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jordan W. Smoller

  9. Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Michael S. Jellinek

Authors
  1. J. Michael Murphy
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  2. Javier Guzmán
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  3. Alyssa E. McCarthy
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  4. Ana María Squicciarini
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  5. Myriam George
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  6. Katia M. Canenguez
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  7. Erin C. Dunn
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  8. Lee Baer
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  11. Michael S. Jellinek
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Correspondence to J. Michael Murphy.

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Murphy, J.M., Guzmán, J., McCarthy, A.E. et al. Mental Health Predicts Better Academic Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of Elementary School Students in Chile. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 46, 245–256 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-014-0464-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-014-0464-4

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