School-level administrative data is associated with childhood and young adult mental health: Evidence from a UK longitudinal cohort

Reported rates of mental health problems among children and young people in the United Kingdom have been increasing. While studies have shown that measures of the perceived school environment are linked to pupil mental health, research using school-level administrative measures remains limited. In this study, we linked longitudinal data from 6,398 participants in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) to national pupil and school databases and investigated the associations between administrative measures of the school environment and developmental psychopathology from ages 12 to 21. We found that administrative measures of the school environment were cumulatively associated with psychopathology burden, explaining 0.3%-3.9% of the variance. The associations were attenuated, but effects remained significant after controlling for genetic predisposition to mental health problems using psychiatric polygenic scores, mental health at age 7, and family socioeconomic status. Additionally, we found evidence of small bidirectional links (β= 0.02-0.07) using cross-lagged panel analyses. Our findings highlight the importance of considering school-level administrative measures for mental health outcomes and demonstrate the value of linking administrative data with mental health outcomes to guide school-level intervention.