Nursery World - Youngest in class 'at risk mentally'

The youngest children in a school year are at greater risk of developing mental health problems than older pupils in their class, according to research published last week in the British Medical Journal. Academics from the Institute of Psychiatry and Imperial College School of Medicine carried out a survey of 10,000 children aged five to 15, mainly in England and Wales. The researchers, Professor Robert Goodman and clinical research fellows Julia Gledhill and Tamsin Ford, said the results of a 'strengths and difficulties' questionnaire showed that being among the youngest in a school year was associated with more emotional and behavioural problems, arising from 'the disadvantages of immaturity rather than from seasonal variance'.

Academics from the Institute of Psychiatry and Imperial College School of Medicine carried out a survey of 10,000 children aged five to 15, mainly in England and Wales. The researchers, Professor Robert Goodman and clinical research fellows Julia Gledhill and Tamsin Ford, said the results of a 'strengths and difficulties' questionnaire showed that being among the youngest in a school year was associated with more emotional and behavioural problems, arising from 'the disadvantages of immaturity rather than from seasonal variance'.

They said the risks could be reduced if schools made greater allowances for the youngest children in each class and concluded, 'Increased awareness by teachers of the relative age of their pupils and a more flexible approach to children's progression through school might reduce the number of children with impairing psychiatric disorders in the general population.'

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