Opportunities for reducing socioeconomic inequalities in the mental health of children and young people – reducing adversity and increasing resilience
| Date | 21 March 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-08-2015-0039 |
| Pages | 4-18 |
| Published date | 21 March 2016 |
| Author | Jillian Roberts,Angela Donkin,Michael Marmot |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
General review
Opportunities for reducing socioeconomic
inequalities in the mental health of
children and young people –reducing
adversity and increasing resilience
Jillian Roberts, Angela Donkin and Michael Marmot
Jillian Roberts is Research
Fellow at the Department of
Epidemiology and Public
Health, UCL Institute of Health
Equity, London, UK.
Angela Donkin and Michael
Marmot, both are based at the
UCL Institute of Health Equity,
London, UK.
Abstract
Purpose –Poor mental health and well-being disproportionately affects vulnerable and disadvantaged
children and young people. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach –The focus of this paper is socioeconomic inequalities in perinatal, child
and adolescent mental health.
Findings –Children and young people in the poorest British households are up to three times more likely to
develop mental health problems than their more advantaged peers (Green et al., 2005). The pattern can also
be observed in the opposite direction, with poor mental health known to contribute to socioeconomic and
other health problems (McCulloch and Goldie, 2010, Parckar, 2008). At alarger scale, the higher the level of
inequality within developed countries, the higher the rate of child and adolescent mental health problems
(Pickett et al., 2006).
Social implications –Mechanisms posited as underlying such inequalities include family investment and
stress processes. These factors have been taken into account when developing the economic case for
investing in perinatal, child and adolescent mental health.
Originality/value –Illustrative examples of progressive universal strategies and policies to help reduce
socioeconomic inequalities in mental health, include: action to address the inequality gap in the UK; early
intervention to improve mental health; investing in sustainable and evidence-based mental health services;
ensuring parity of esteem, and; using appropriately designed social media and online sources to support
children’s mental health.
Keywords Mental health, Well-being, Disadvantaged children, Disadvantaged young people,
Socioeconomic inequalities
Paper type Viewpoint
1. Introduction
The Institute of Health Equity wrote Fair Society, Healthy Lives: the Marmot review (The Marmot
Review Team, 2010), and specialise in translating evidence from multiple fields into practical,
actionable research and recommendations. This paper is based on a (non-systematic) review of
readily available information. We draw upon our experience of writing relevant evidence reviews
in this area for practitioners and policy makers. For example, we have written a review of the
social determinants of mental health in Europe (Allen et al., 2014), and reviews for Public Health
England and the Department of Health on childhood adversity (Allen and Donkin, 2014), school
transitions and building resilience in schools (Roberts, 2015a).
Received 19 August 2015
Revised 19 August 2015
Accepted 26 August 2015
PAG E 4
j
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH
j
VOL. 15 NO. 1 2016, pp. 4-18, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729 DOI 10.1108/JPMH-08-2015-0039
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