Investigating the toll of childhood socioeconomic disadvantage on adolescent mental health in three UK cohorts.

Authors

Caitlyn Rawers, Orla McBride, Jamie Murphy, Eoin McElroy

Published in

JCPP advances. Pages e70131. Jul 11, 2026. Epub Jul 11, 2026.

Abstract

Low socioeconomic position (SEP) in childhood is robustly associated with adolescent mental health difficulties, yet this relationship is changing over time due to contextual and conceptual differences in these constructs. Consistent SEP and mental health data from different cohorts are required to understand changes over time, which is uncommon. This study used retrospectively harmonised data from three UK birth cohorts to investigate the changing relationship between SEP and mental health between the 1970s and 2000s.
Mental health and SEP data from three UK birth cohorts (British Cohort Study [BCS70], Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children [ALSPAC], Millennium Cohort Study [MCS]) were harmonised and tested for measurement invariance. Latent factors reflecting internalising, behavioural, and ADHD symptoms, were examined as distal outcomes of SEP latent classes.
Partial scalar invariance was supported with multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. Although the structure of the SEP latent classes differed considerably across cohorts, the most disadvantaged class in each cohort experienced greater levels of mental health difficulties. In the ALSPAC, only behavioural symptoms were significantly predicted by disadvantaged class membership; in both the BCS70 and MCS, all symptom domains were significant. The strongest association between the most disadvantaged class and mental health symptoms was observed in the MCS.
This study assessed the relationship between SEP and mental health using a novel methodological approach to harmonise and compare cohort data. Findings indicate that mental health may be more strongly related to socioeconomic disadvantage in recent cohorts, despite differences in the structure of SEP. Future research should utilise harmonisation to understand time trends in prevalent societal issues.

PMID:
42437107
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.