Children Who Are Leaders In School Benefit From Better Health As Adults

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Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 29 Sep 2009 - 0:00 PST

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Research published ahead of print in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health reports that children who are popular and exert power among their school classmates enjoy better health as adults.

Researchers reviewed more than 14,000 children who were born in Sweden in 1953 and who were part of the Stockholm Birth Cohort Study. This monitors the long term health of children born between 1953 and 2003.

When the children reached sixth grade in 1966 and were 12 to 13 years old, the degree of popularity, power, and status enjoyed by each child was evaluated. It was assessed by asking them who they most preferred to work with at school.

The answers were then ranked into five status bands:

• marginalized (no nominations)
• peripheral (one nomination)
• accepted (two to three nominations)
• popular (four to six nominations)
• favorite (seven or more nominations)

Using national hospital discharge records, this information was then matched to data on subsequent hospital admissions for the period between 1973 and 2003.

Investigation revealed that children who were the least popular at school had the highest overall risk of serious health illness as an adult. The pattern was obvious for both men and women. But there were differences in the types of health illness they developed.

Children who were the least accepted and dominant at school were more than four times as likely to require hospital treatment for hormonal (including diabetes), nutritional, and metabolic diseases as their most popular and powerful classmates.

In addition, they were more than twice as likely to develop mental illness and behavioral problems, including suicide attempts and self harm.

They were more than five times as likely to be admitted for unintentional poisoning, while those classified as "peripheral" were more than seven times as likely to require hospital care for this same event.

They were also considerably more likely to develop drug and alcohol addiction problems and nine times more likely to develop ischaemic heart disease.

Childhood social class was not considered in the account of the findings.

The authors suggest that "peer status in childhood is linked to adult health through behavioral and psychological factors that influence the development of disorders and diseases in which these factors feature."

"Peer status in school and adult disease risk: a 30-year follow-up study of disease specific morbidity in a Stockholm cohort"
Y Almquist
J Epidemiol Community Health 2009; doi: 10.1136/jech.2009.088377
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health

Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.)
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