Abstract
Children who experience behavioral difficulties often have short and long-term school problems. However, the relationship between emotional difficulties and later academic achievement has not been thoroughly examined. Using data from the French TEMPO study (n = 666, follow-up 1991, 1999, 2009, mean age = 10.5, sd = 4.9 at baseline), we studied associations between internalizing and externalizing symptoms in: (a) childhood and (b) adolescence and educational attainment by young adulthood (< vs. ≥ high school degree), accounting for participants’ age, sex, juvenile academic difficulties, and family income. High levels of childhood (but not adolescent) internalizing and externalizing symptoms were associated with low educational attainment; however, in multivariate models only the association with childhood internalizing symptoms remained statistically significant (OR = 1.75, 95 % CI 1.00–3.02). Supporting children with internalizing problems early on could help improve their long-term educational attainment.
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Acknowledgments
The TEMPO study is supported by the French Ministry of Health-IReSP (TGIR Cohortes), the French Inter-departmental Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Drug addiction (MILDeCA), the French Institute of Cancer (INCa) and the Pfizer Foundation.
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On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-0947-5.
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Zbar, A., Surkan, P.J., Fombonne, E. et al. Early emotional and behavioral difficulties and adult educational attainment: an 18-year follow-up of the TEMPO study. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 25, 1141–1143 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-016-0858-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-016-0858-x