The early onset of distress disorders and high school dropout: Prospective evidence from a national cohort of Australian adolescents

Abstract

Prior research examining whether depression and anxiety lead to high school dropout is limited by a reliance on retrospective reports, the assessment of mental health at a single point in time (often remote from the time of high school exit) and omission of important measures of the social and familial environment. The current study addresses these limitations by analyzsing 8 waves of longitudinal data from a cohort of Australian adolescents (n = 1,057) in the Household Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey (2001–2008). Respondents were followed from the age of 15 years through to completion or exit from high school. Discrete time survival analysis assessed whether the early experience of a distress disorder (DD) (indicated by scores <50 on the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-5) from the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36)) predicted subsequent high school dropout, having controlled for household and parental socio-economic characteristics, and smoking and alcohol consumption. Adolescents with a prior distress disorder had twice the odds of high school dropout compared to those without (OR = 1.99; 1.24, 3.17). This association was somewhat attenuated but remained significant in models including tobacco and alcohol consumption (OR = 1.74; 1.09, 2.78). These results suggest improving the mental health of high school students may promote better educational outcomes.