Poor mental health as child 'can impair later ability to work'

Children in Great Britain with serious mental health conditions are two-thirds more likely to have a limited ability to work in adulthood, according to research from a leading thinktank.

- Tobi Thomas

A report by researchers at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) looked at data from about 6,000 people involved in the 1970 British Cohort Study, which is following the lives of individuals born in a single week in 1970 across Great Britain.

The analysis found that people who had severe mental and behavioural issues as a child were 85% more likely to have symptoms of depression at the age of 51, and 68% more likely to have a long-term condition that affects their ability to work. Children with a physical health problem were 38% more likely to have limited capacity for work in later life, according to the analysis.

The government has pledged to "raise the healthiest generation of children in our history".