IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0279845.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the relationship between income and mental health among 16- to 24-year-olds: Analysis of 10 waves (2009–2020) of Understanding Society to enable modelling of income interventions

Author

Listed:
  • Fiorella Parra-Mujica
  • Elliott Johnson
  • Howard Reed
  • Richard Cookson
  • Matthew Johnson

Abstract

A substantial body of evidence suggests that young people, including those at the crucial transition points between 16 and 24, now face severe mental health challenges. In this article, we analyse data from 10 waves of a major UK longitudinal household cohort study, Understanding Society, to examine the relationship between income and anxiety and depression among 16- to 24-year-olds. Using random effects logistic regression (Model 1) allowing for whether the individual was depressed in the previous period as well as sex, age, ethnicity, whether the individual was born in the UK, region, rurality, highest qualification, marital status, employment status and attrition, we find a significant and inversely monotonic adjusted association between average net equivalised household income quintiles and clinical threshold levels of depressive symptoms SF-12 Mental Component Summary (MCS score ≤45.6). This means that being in a higher income group is associated with a reduced likelihood of clinically significant depressive symptoms, allowing for observable confounding variables. Using a ‘within-between’ model (Model 2), we find that apart from among those with the very highest incomes, increases in average net equivalised household income over the course of childhood and adolescence are significantly associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression as measured by a higher SF-12 MCS score. Compared with previous reviews, the data presented here provides an estimate of the magnitude of effect that helps facilitate microsimulation modelling of impact on anxiety and depression from changes in socioeconomic circumstances. This enables a more detailed and complete understanding of the types of socioeconomic intervention that might begin to address some of the causes of youth mental health problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Fiorella Parra-Mujica & Elliott Johnson & Howard Reed & Richard Cookson & Matthew Johnson, 2023. "Understanding the relationship between income and mental health among 16- to 24-year-olds: Analysis of 10 waves (2009–2020) of Understanding Society to enable modelling of income interventions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(2), pages 1-22, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0279845
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279845
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279845
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0279845&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0279845?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Contoyannis & Andrew M. Jones & Nigel Rice, 2004. "The dynamics of health in the British Household Panel Survey," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(4), pages 473-503.
    2. Andrew Bell & Malcolm Fairbrother & Kelvyn Jones, 2019. "Fixed and random effects models: making an informed choice," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 1051-1074, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Parra-Mujica, F. & Robson, M. & Cookson, R., 2021. "Socioeconomic Health Inequalities: Differences Between and Within Individuals," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/15, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    2. KonShik Kim, 2023. "The impact of job quality on organizational commitment and job satisfaction: The moderating role of socioeconomic status," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(3), pages 773-797, August.
    3. Baron, Opher & Callen, Jeffrey L. & Segal, Dan, 2023. "Does the bullwhip matter economically? A cross-sectional firm-level analysis," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 259(C).
    4. Damiano Fiorillo & Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera & Nunzia Nappo, 2020. "Individual Heterogeneity in the Association Between Social Participation and Self-rated Health: A Panel Study on BHPS," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 151(2), pages 645-667, September.
    5. Svetlana Pashchenko & Ponpoje (Poe) Porapakkarm & Mariacristina De Nardi, 2017. "The Lifetime Costs of Bad Health," 2017 Meeting Papers 533, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Greene, William, 2007. "Functional Form and Heterogeneity in Models for Count Data," Foundations and Trends(R) in Econometrics, now publishers, vol. 1(2), pages 113-218, August.
    7. Ozdamar, Oznur & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2016. "Being Healthy in Turkey: A Pseudo-Panel Data Analysis," MPRA Paper 95838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Maite Blázquez & Elena Cottini & Ainhoa Herrarte, 2014. "The socioeconomic gradient in health: how important is material deprivation?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 12(2), pages 239-264, June.
    9. Shinsuke Asakawa, 2020. "Can Child Benefits Shape Parents' Attitudes toward Childrearing in Japan?: Effects of Child Benefit Policy Expansions," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 19-04-Rev.2, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    10. Lionel WILNER, 2019. "The Dynamics of Individual Happiness," Working Papers 2019-18, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    11. Mussida, Chiara & Sciulli, Dario, 2023. "The evolution of income distribution and disability in Europe," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 29-38.
    12. Odeyemi Gbenga A., 2015. "Understanding the Dynamics between Income and Health: Evidence Form African’s Richest and Poorest Countries," Journal of Public Policy & Governance, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 2(2), pages 56-67.
    13. Patricia Cubí‐Mollá & Mireia Jofre‐Bonet & Victoria Serra‐Sastre, 2017. "Adaptation to health states: Sick yet better off?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(12), pages 1826-1843, December.
    14. Andrew M. Jones & Audrey Laporte & Nigel Rice & Eugenio Zucchelli, 2019. "Dynamic panel data estimation of an integrated Grossman and Becker–Murphy model of health and addiction," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 703-733, February.
    15. van Ooijen, R. & Alessi, R. & Knoef, M., 2015. "Health status over the life cycle," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 15/21, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    16. Hernández-Quevedo, Cristina & Jones, Andrew M. & Rice, Nigel, 2008. "Persistence in health limitations: A European comparative analysis," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1472-1488, December.
    17. Maite Blázquez Cuesta & Elena Cottini & Herrarte, A. (Ainhoa), 2012. "GINI DP 39: Socioeconomic Gradient in Health: How Important is Material Deprivation?," GINI Discussion Papers 39, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    18. Jesus M. Carro & Alejandra Traferri, 2014. "State Dependence And Heterogeneity In Health Using A Bias‐Corrected Fixed‐Effects Estimator," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(2), pages 181-207, March.
    19. repec:ucn:wpaper:10197/1111 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Katharina Hauck & Aki Tsuchiya, 2010. "Health mobility: implications for efficiency and equity in priority setting," Monash Econometrics and Business Statistics Working Papers 6/10, Monash University, Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics.
    21. Sirven, Nicolas, 2006. "Endogenous social capital and self-rated health: Cross-sectional data from rural areas of Madagascar," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(6), pages 1489-1502, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0279845. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.