The role of school demands and achievements for temporal trends in stress and mental health

Research problem and specific questionsMental problems such as school-related stress and symptoms of anxiety and depression have increased among Swedish adolescents since the 1990s, especially among girls.

The increase coincides with a set of major education reforms concerning curricula, assessment systems and eligibility requirements.

Accordingly, changes in schooling – greater demands, lower achievements and associated higher rates of school failure – have been put forth as a leading cause behind the increasing mental problems. However, little research exists to substantiate these claims.

Against this background, the aim of this project is to study the role of school demands and pupils’ achievements for mental health among Swedish pupils between 1990 and 2018.Data, methods and plan for project realisationWe combine longitudinal register data on education and health with repeated panel surveys of Swedish pupils going back to the 1990s.

With longitudinal data across multiple cohorts, we can track pupils through their educational trajectories and compare cohorts subject to different national education policies.

State-of-the-art quantitative methods will enable us to disentangle causal relationships and quantify the importance of key school factors for trends in mental health.

With its cross-disciplinary networks and extensive experiences of relevant data and methods, the project team is well placed for carrying out the project.RelevanceThe project will make empirical and theoretical contributions to the research field.

By combining comprehensive register data with rich survey data on pupils’ school environments we will gain a deeper understanding of how pupils’ mental health evolves during formative school years in relation to different policy contexts.

The research design will allow us to draw policy-relevant conclusions regarding how negative health outcomes may be counteracted.

The results of the project will be of relevance for policymakers, pupils, school staff and others with a stake in the Swedish education system.