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Psychiatric disorders more common in chidren born late in the school year

August 29, 2003

Research in this weeks BMJ reveals that being one of the youngest children in your school year puts you at greater risk of developing mental health problems.

The authors surveyed over 10,000 school children in England, Scotland and Wales by using reports from teachers, parents and the pupils themselves. The questions probed aspects of the children's emotions, behaviour, activity levels, peer relationships and social behaviour. The answers were used to generate a measure of their mental health.

In England and Wales the oldest children in the school year are born in September and the youngest in August. Comparison of their mental health scores showed that children born in the summer months were much more likely to have suffered from psychiatric disorders.

In Scotland, the oldest children in a school year are born in March and the youngest in February. Despite the differences in the education system a similar trend was shown in Scotland confirming that it is the child's age, relative to their peers, that influences mental health rather than simply the season in which they were born.

The researchers concluded that encouraging teachers be more aware of the age differences between students and adopting a more flexible approach to a child's progression through school may reduce the number of children with psychiatric disorders.

British Medical Journal (BMJ)