Purpose

Those born earlier within cohorts of similarly aged children tend to outperform peers in athletic and academic pursuits. Subsequent evidence suggests relatively younger children may also experience worse emotional and psychosocial health; however, evidence from middle adolescents is limited. This study assessed whether depression, anxiety, and psychosocial well-being differed by the relative birth quarter (RBQ) within a cohort of grades 9–12 in secondary schools across Canada.

Methods

Data from the 2018–19 student self-report surveys of the cannabis use, obesity, mental health, physical activity, alcohol use, smoking, and sedentary behavior study were analyzed. Students having made normative progress were categorized into RBQs by the provincial enrollment cutoff date (n = 49,921). Hierarchical modeling approaches assessed whether self-reported depression, anxiety, psychosocial well-being, and positive controls differed by RBQ after controlling for covariates.

Results

Despite relative age effects for positive control outcomes, no significant difference was detected for anxiety and depression scores or likelihood of meeting thresholds for having clinically relevant symptoms. However, a significant difference emerged between RBQs for psychosocial well-being scores; post hoc tests found that psychosocial well-being scores were lower in the fourth RBQ than those in all prior quarters.

Discussion

Results agree with limited findings that relative age differences in emotional health are not significant in older cohorts. Nonetheless, relatively older individuals reported very small (d = .04–.05) advantages in psychosocial well-being than their youngest peers, which aligns with previous data. Longitudinal approaches to assess relative age effects on mental health during and throughout the transition into middle adolescence are warranted.

中文翻译：

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你真的想永远年轻吗？加拿大青少年相对出生季度的情绪健康和社会心理健康

目的

在同龄儿童群体中较早出生的人往往在运动和学术追求方面优于同龄人。随后的证据表明，相对年幼的儿童也可能经历更差的情绪和社会心理健康；然而，来自中间青少年的证据是有限的。本研究评估了加拿大中学 9-12 年级队列中的抑郁、焦虑和社会心理健康是否因相对出生季度 (RBQ) 而不同。

方法

分析了 2018-19 年学生对大麻使用、肥胖、心理健康、身体活动、酒精使用、吸烟和久坐行为研究的自我报告调查的数据。按省招生截止日期（n = 49,921）将取得规范进展的学生分类为 RBQ。分层建模方法评估了自我报告的抑郁、焦虑、心理健康和阳性对照在控制协变量后是否因 RBQ 而异。

结果

尽管阳性对照结果具有相对年龄影响，但在焦虑和抑郁评分或达到临床相关症状阈值的可能性方面未检测到显着差异。然而，在心理社会福祉评分的 RBQ 之间出现了显着差异。事后测试发现，第四个 RBQ 的心理社会幸福感得分低于之前所有季度的得分。

讨论

结果与有限的研究结果一致，即情绪健康的相对年龄差异在老年人群中并不显着。尽管如此， 与最年轻的同龄人相比，相对年长的人在社会心理健康方面的优势非常小（ d = .04-.05），这与之前的数据一致。有必要采用纵向方法来评估在青春期中期和整个过渡期间相对年龄对心理健康的影响。