Private education doesn’t lead to better mental health: Study

A new study has found that those who went to private school in England were no happier with their lives in their 20s than their state-educated peers.

The results of the study were published in the Cambridge Journal of Education.

Previous work has shown that students from private schools obtain better academic results than those who attend public schools. But whether they also enjoy non-academic benefits, such as better mental health, has been less clear.

To find out more, researchers at University College London (UCL) analyzed data from the Next Steps study, led by the Center for Longitudinal Studies, which follows the lives of a representative sample of 15,770 people born in England between 1989 and 1990.

The participants have been surveyed regularly since 2004, when they were 13- and 14-year-old high school students.

Life satisfaction was measured at ages 20 and 25 by asking participants how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with the way their life had turned out so far.

At first glance, those who had gone to private school were happier with their lot. However, after accounting for factors such as socioeconomic background and ethnicity, the difference disappeared.

Mental health was measured at ages 14, 16, and 25 by asking questions such as “have you been able to concentrate on what you’re doing?” and “Have you lost sleep over worry?” The General Health Questionnaire is a standardized and validated measure of mental health, comprising twelve questions of this type.

The results suggested that there was no advantage to private school for children’s mental health at any age. While at age 16, girls in private schools had slightly better mental health than those in public schools. No such difference was seen at 14 or 25.

The researchers concluded that, overall, there was no convincing evidence of a difference in mental health or life satisfaction between public and private school students, either in their teens or 20s. They also point out that this analysis identifies associations between school status and well-being rather than establishing a causal relationship.

The findings surprised the researchers, who noted that private schools, which educate around seven percent of pupils in England, have much more money to spend on resources than public schools. Private schools have also placed special emphasis on pastoral support for mental health in recent years.

Additionally, higher educational achievement, something already associated with private schools, is linked to better mental health.

However, private school students may be under more pressure than their public school peers.

“I think it’s possible that increased pastoral support was just beginning to make a difference for this cohort,” said researcher Dr. Morag Henderson, a sociologist.

“But it’s also likely that, although school resources are greater in private schools, the academic stress students face is also greater, so we see each force canceling out the other,” added Dr Morag Henderson. .

Dr. Henderson added that the results could be different for today’s schoolchildren, as private schools are better able to support students struggling with mental health since the start of the pandemic.

He explained: “This is speculation, but it could be that we see public school students doing worse in terms of mental health compared to private school students, after the lockdown. This question is ripe for future analysis and is a of the areas that the new COVID Social Mobility and Opportunity Study (COSMO) cohort study, led by Dr. Jake Anders, one of the co-authors, is gathering evidence.”

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