A new study finds that people who attended a private school in England were no happier with their lives in their early 20s than their state-educated peers. The results of the study have been published in the journal ‘Cambridge Journal of Education’.
Previous work has shown that private school students perform better academically than those attending state schools. But whether they also enjoy non-academic benefits, such as better mental health, is less clear.
To learn more, University College London (UCL) researchers analyzed data from the Next Steps study, conducted by the Center for Longitudinal Studies, which followed the lives of a representative sample of 15,770 people born in England between 1989 and 1990. Is.
Participants have been surveyed regularly since 2004 when they were 13- and 14-year-old secondary school students. Life satisfaction was measured at ages 20 and 25, in which participants were asked how satisfied or dissatisfied they were with the way they were living their lives so far.
On the other hand, those who went to private school were happy with their luck. However, after including factors such as socio-economic background and ethnicity, the difference disappeared.
Mental health was measured at 14, 16 and 25 with questions such as “Are you able to focus on what you are doing?” and “Have you lost sleep from worry?”. The General Health Questionnaire is a standardized and validated measure of mental health, consisting of twelve such questions.
The results suggested that there was no private school benefit for boys’ mental health at any age. Whereas at age 16, the mental health of girls in private schools was slightly better than that of their state school counterparts. No such difference was observed in 14 or 25.
The researchers concluded that, overall, there was no convincing evidence of differences in mental health or life satisfaction between private and state school students, either in their teens or in their early 20s. They also note that this analysis identifies a relationship between school status and well-being, rather than establishing a causal relationship.
The findings surprised researchers, who show that private schools, which educate about seven percent of pupils in England, have a lot more money to spend on resources than state schools. Private schools have also placed a special emphasis on pastoral support for mental health in recent years.
In addition, higher academic achievement, which is already associated with private schools, is associated with better mental health. However, private school students may be under more pressure than their state school peers.
“I think it’s possible that increased pastoral support was starting to make a difference for this group,” said researcher Dr. Morag Henderson, a sociologist. “But there is also the possibility that although school resources are greater in private schools, the academic stress students may also face and so we see each force canceling the other,” said Dr. Morag Henderson.
Dr Henderson said the results may be different for today’s school children, as private schools are better able to support students who have struggled with their mental health since the start of the pandemic.
She explained, “It is speculation, but it could be that we see state school students in worse mental health than private school students, post the lockdown. This question is ready for future analysis; And one of the areas where the new COVID Social Mobility and Opportunities Study (COSMO) cohort study, headed by Dr Jake Anders – one of the co-authors – is gathering evidence on this.”
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