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Youth Unemployment and Psychiatric Problems

Increasing rates of youth unemployment in New Zealand have lead to concerns and claims about the extent to which exposure to unemployment may increase psychiatric problems in young people. This issue has been examined in a study of over 1,000 Christchurch-born children who have been studied to the age of 18. This HRC-funded study looked at the relationships between unemployment following school leaving and rates of mental health problems up to the age of 18.

The study shows that that those exposed to unemployment were at increased risks of a range of mental health problems including: conduct difficulties, substance abuse behaviours, anxiety, depression and suicide attempts. However, these people were also characterised by other difficulties and disadvantages that were present prior to their experience of unemployment. These factors included higher rates of family problems and difficulties during childhood, the early development of adjustment problems, limited educational achievement and higher rates of mental health and adjustment problems prior to school leaving.

These findings raise the possibility that linkages between unemployment and mental health difficulties reflect the effects of pre-existing social and individual factors that predispose young people to both increased risks of unemployment and increased risks of adjustment problems in young adulthood.

These results suggest that, to a very large extent, the higher rates of adjustment difficulties seen amongst young people who are unemployed do not reflect the direct effects of unemployment on individual adjustment. Rather, they appear to arise because young people who are already predisposed to having adjustment difficulties are also at greater risk of becoming unemployed. Nonetheless there is evidence to suggest that exposure to unemployment may lead to increased risks of anxiety and substance use disorders.

In general, whilst the results do not support the view that unemployment makes a major contribution to problems of mental health in young people, they do suggest that full employment may make a small but positive contribution to the mental health of young people.

Professor David Fergusson, Christchurch School of Medicine