This article extends the evidence base on childhood circumstances, education and psychological distress. We examine the link between childhood advantage and disadvantage, the type of school attended during adolescence and psychological distress at ages 16 and 42. The analysis uses a large, population-based birth cohort study, the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) (n = 17,198) using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. More advantaged young people were more likely to attend private schools, but we find no evidence for an effect of private schooling on psychological distress for men, and for women there was an association between private schooling and raised psychological distress at age 16. Having a university degree was associated with a modest reduction in psychological distress in mid-life. We establish that maternal psychological distress at age 10 was a risk factor for the offspring’s psychological distress both in adolescence and in mid-life, and adolescent psychological distress predicts psychological distress in mid-life. We conclude that schools which are academically successful do not necessarily provide wider benefits in terms of mental health.

中文翻译：

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青春期和中年的教育和心理困扰：私立学校会有所作为吗？

本文扩展了有关童年环境、教育和心理困扰的证据基础。我们研究了童年的优势和劣势、青春期就读的学校类型以及 16 岁和 42 岁的心理困扰之间的联系。该分析使用了一项基于人群的大型出生队列研究，即 1970 年英国队列研究 (BCS70)（n = 17,198) 使用结构方程建模 (SEM) 方法。更有优势的年轻人更有可能上私立学校，但我们没有发现私立学校对男性心理困扰有影响的证据，而对于女性来说，私立学校与 16 岁时心理困扰增加之间存在关联。度与中年心理困扰的适度减少有关。我们确定母亲在 10 岁时的心理困扰是后代在青春期和中年心理困扰的危险因素，而青少年心理困扰预示着中年的心理困扰。我们得出的结论是，学业成功的学校不一定能在心理健康方面提供更广泛的好处。