Educational attainment and emotional well-being in adolescence and adulthood

Citation

Lee, Kristen Schultz & Yang, Yulin (2022). Educational attainment and emotional well-being in adolescence and adulthood. SSM - Mental Health. vol. 2

Abstract

Education has been conceptualized as a causal factor leading to emotional well-being. However, it is also possible that some of the effect of education may be due to selection factors. Analyzing data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n ​= ​10,908), we asked: to what extent does educational attainment increase emotional well-being once stable observed and unobserved individual characteristics are accounted for? Findings from fixed effects models showed that attaining a college degree was associated with greater emotional well-being. However, interactions with gender indicate that the positive association with emotional well-being is primarily for women, although a small negative association between completing college and depressive affect was found for men. These findings point to unmeasured confounding factors as motivating some of the association between educational attainment and emotional well-being among adolescents and adults.

URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100138

Keyword(s)

Education

Reference Type

Journal Article

Journal Title

SSM - Mental Health

Author(s)

Lee, Kristen Schultz
Yang, Yulin

Year Published

2022

Volume Number

2

ISSN/ISBN

2666-5603

DOI

10.1016/j.ssmmh.2022.100138

Reference ID

9755