Psychiatry · Public Health · 1 h ago
Educational attainment gap widened among young people attending CAMHS
A nationwide longitudinal cohort study in Wales compared GCSE outcomes among young people with and without prior contact with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Although basic GCSE failure declined overall between birth cohorts, the adjusted gap associated with CAMHS contact widened.
- Overall GCSE Level 1 failure declined across birth cohorts.
- Prior CAMHS contact was associated with higher odds of failure.
- The attainment gap widened for outpatients and inpatients.
Using linked administrative data from the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage databank, researchers followed people born in Wales from 1992 to 2003 through 2019. They compared GCSE attainment at age 16 between young people with and without prior CAMHS contact, examining two birth cohorts: 1992–1997 and 1998–2003. The abstract does not report the cohort’s sample size.
The proportion of the overall population failing to meet the basic GCSE Level 1 threshold fell from 6.9% in the older cohort to 3.7% in the younger cohort. Young people with prior CAMHS contact had higher adjusted odds of failing to reach that threshold (aOR 4.28, 95% CI 4.08–4.48). The gap widened over time for both CAMHS outpatients (interaction aOR 1.30, 95% CI 1.20–1.40) and inpatients (1.80, 95% CI 1.47–2.19).
The findings identify a widening educational disparity, but the observational design does not establish that CAMHS contact causes lower attainment. The authors call for research into ways to address the educational needs of young people accessing these services.
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Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry: Widening educational inequalities for young people attending child and adolescent mental health services: a longitudinal cohort study ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.