Dr Kerry Hempenstall, Senior Industry Fellow, School of Education, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
First published Nov 5 2012, updated 19/8/2016, 12/6/2018
All my blogs can be viewed on-line or downloaded as a Word file or PDF at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/olxpifutwcgvg8j/AABU8YNr4ZxiXPXzvHrrirR8a?dl=0
New Addition – April 2025
This is a new research paper added to the older original set that is still available at the end of this section.
The reason for the new paper is to consider whether Literacy and Mental Health issues have changed over time. The new section emphasises papers aged between 2020 to 2025. In contrast, the older set contains material going back a far as 1963 and others at various ages.
So, the interesting question is - has the Intervention material changed over time? If so, how?
Now for the relevant, newer, research results:
“The relationship between mental health and literacy is not easy to disentangle, as studies are usually correlational in design. Certainly, there does appear to be a link - but does illiteracy cause mental health problems, or might mental health problems impede literacy development? Or perhaps a third variable affects both domains. One obvious candidate for a causal link involves extended failure caused or exacerbated by inadequate instruction, particularly in that first big educational hurdle – literacy development.” (Hempenstall, LMH)
Response to Intervention (2019)
“Increasingly, a different approach known as Response to Intervention (RTI) is supplanting the discrepancy approach, although there are also criticisms of this new emphasis (Baskette, Ulmer, & Bender, 2006). For example, some have argued that a hybrid of RTI and discrepancy approaches offer the optimal solution for assessment and intervention in LD (Hale et al., 2010).
While this debate over special education continues, the RTI model has found another, much broader, niche in education – as a framework for providing early identification of potential problems, and better instruction to students in general education, thereby reducing the demand for expensive special education services.
Response to Intervention integrates assessment and intervention within a multi-level prevention system to maximize student achievement and to reduce behavioural problems. With RTI, schools use data to identify students at risk for poor learning outcomes, monitor student progress, provide evidence-based interventions and adjust the intensity and nature of those interventions depending on a student’s responsiveness, and identify students with learning disabilities or other disabilities” (National Center on Response to Intervention, 2010).
RTI derives from the application of the same scientific method used to study natural phenomena. The approach proceeds from a description of the problem, followed by the development of a hypothesis as to cause. A procedure is selected based upon the hypothesis, and the intervention is commenced, while data is then regularly collected, leading to a conclusion about the intervention’s effectiveness. This is a cyclical process that continues until the objective is attained for a given student.
There are a number of assumptions underlying the RTI framework. All students can learn, and the learning is strongly influenced by the quality of instruction. In fact, it is argued that there is a predictable relationship between instructional quality and learning outcomes. It is expected that both general classroom programs and additional specific interventions will be evidence-based to provide greater instructional quality. Assuming the curriculum content is evidence-based, another manipulable causal variable will be intensity of the intervention. This includes varying academic engaged time, lesson frequency, program duration, group size, engagement, lesson pacing, mastery criteria, number of response opportunities, correction procedures, goal specificity, and instructor skill.
RTI advocates argue that the model is useful for both beginning and remedial instruction. The sequence for a school or class involves all beginning students being screened for the pre-skills that evidence highlights are necessary for success in the domain in question. Appropriate universal screening tools are available at the National Center for RTI website (rti4success.org), and in numerous other sites. The derived data allow judgements of the students' current performance, by comparing them to a criterion-referenced benchmark. If scores are at or beyond the benchmark, students are judged to be satisfactorily managed within the general classroom program. If a student’s scores fall below the benchmark then general classroom instruction is considered insufficient for the child’s needs, and requires supplementation.
Most of the studies involving RTI have focused upon reading, but the breadth of application is increasing. All students are provided with research-validated instruction from the beginning, and are regularly re-assessed, at least three times per year. Additionally, student behaviour is assessed because of the close links (and possible reciprocal causation) between early academic success and student behaviour (Algozzine, McCart, & Goodman, 2011). This widening of RTI emphasis has led to the introduction of another descriptor – Multi-tier System of Supports (MTSS).
“More recently, multitier system of supports (MTSS) has become influential in educational policy. It provides an overarching framework that usually includes the three levels of RTI for struggling students. Extending beyond academics, its reach includes social and emotional supports, such as behavior intervention plans, and is intended to be applicable to all students.”
Greenwood, C. R., Carta, J. J., Schnitz, A. G., Irvin, D. W., Jia, F., & Atwater, J. (2019). Filling an information gap in preschool MTSS and RTI decision making. Exceptional Children, 85(3), 271–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402918812473
“Anxiety and depression symptoms may leave children at risk for lower academic scores, though this unique linkage to academic achievement in underserved youth is less well established. This study aimed to examine how anxiety and depression are uniquely related to spelling and math achievement beyond attention and hyperactivity deficits in children in underserved schools. Children aged 8 to 11 (n = 1085, 47.3% female) from historically underserved groups (Hispanic 75.3%, American Indian 6.4%, Black 4.9%, and White 1.5%) from 13 schools across two public school districts in California participated in the assessment of emotional and behavioral health symptoms that included a spelling and math assessment. While there was no relationship between anxiety or hyperactivity on spelling and math scores, depression and attention problems were significantly negatively related to spelling and math scores.
However, when entered simultaneously, evidence of suppressor effects emerged. Anxiety and hyperactivity both became positively predictive of math. Similarly, anxiety became positively predictive of spelling. Subsample analyses showed that these suppressor effects were only in females. The associations among anxiety, depression, attention, and hyperactivity with spelling and math achievement are complex, and when controlling for depression and attention, anxiety levels and hyperactivity may be motivating some level of achievement in these areas.”
McCurdy BH, Scozzafava MD, Bradley T, Matlow R, Weems CF, Carrion VG. (2022). Impact of anxiety and depression on academic achievement among underserved school children: evidence of suppressor effects. Curr Psychol. 2022 Sep 30:1-9. doi: 10.1007/s12144-022-03801-9. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36213567; PMCID: PMC9524334.
“Mental health problems can affect many areas of students’ lives, reducing their quality of life, academic achievement, physical health, and satisfaction with the college experience, and negatively impacting relationships with friends and family members. These issues can also have long-term consequences for students, affecting their future employment, earning potential, and overall health.1
Consequences for the Student
Mental health problems can affect a student’s energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance.2 Research suggests that depression is associated with lower grade point averages, and that co-occurring depression and anxiety can increase this association.2 Depression has also been linked to dropping out of school.2
Many college students report that mental health difficulties interfere with their studies. On the American College Health Association 2015 survey, college students identified the following mental health issues as negatively impacting their academic performance within the last 12 months:3
- Stress (30% of students)
- Anxiety (22%)
- Sleep difficulties (20%)
- Depression (14%)
Consequences for Others
- Peers, family members, faculty, and staff may be personally affected out of concern for these students.
- Depression and anxiety can have harmful effects on relationships and work productivity.
- Suicide and suicidal thoughts can affect the larger campus community.
- Roommates, peers, faculty, and staff also experience profound grief over student suicides and suicidal behavior.
Consequences for Campuses
- Campuses feel the burden when students with mental health difficulties do poorly on course work and drop out of school.
- Colleges and universities must be prepared to address the psychological impact of suicides on other students, as well as on teachers and staff.4
- Poor student retention can mean losses in tuition, fees, and alumni donations.
Consequences for Communities and the Larger Society
- The community is negatively affected when students are unable to finish their degrees and contribute valuable skills in a competitive job market.
- One study found that five percent of students do not finish their education due to psychiatric disorders and estimated that 4.29 million people would have graduated from college had they not been experiencing such disorders.”
SPRC (2020) Consequences of Student Mental Health Issues at Suicide Prevention Resource Center.
https://sprc.org/settings/colleges-and-universities/consequences-of-student-mental-health-issues/
Prevalence and impact of mental illness in Australia (2024)
“Mental health is a key component of overall health and wellbeing (WHO 2021). A mental illness can be defined as ‘a clinically diagnosable disorder that significantly interferes with a person’s cognitive, emotional or social abilities’ (COAG Health Council 2017). However, a person does not need to meet the criteria for a mental illness to be negatively affected by their mental health (COAG Health Council 2017; Slade et al. 2009).
The terms ‘mental illness’, ‘mental disorder’, ‘mental health condition’ ‘psychiatric illness’ and other terms are used across a range of different studies and data sources to describe a range of mental health and behavioural disorders, which can vary in both severity and duration. For this report the term mental illness is used.
There are multiple surveys which collect information on the extent of mental illness in the Australian population. This page collates evidence on the prevalence and impact of mental illness. For more information about specific surveys, refer to data sources. How many Australians have experienced mental illness?
The following estimates come from the 2020–2022 National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing (NSMHW). It included an in-person interview using the World Health Organization’s Composite International Diagnostic Interview, version 3.0. This instrument indicates diagnoses, rather than relying on participant’s self-reporting of mental illness (ABS 2023b).
Based on the NSMHWB, of Australians aged 16–85, an estimated:
- 8.5 million had experienced a mental illness at some time in their life (43% of the population).
- 4.3 million had experienced a mental illness in the previous 12 months (22% of the population; Figure 1).
The most common mental illnesses in Australia, in the 12 months prior to the study, were:
- Anxiety disorder (3.4 million people, or 17% of the population)
- Affective disorders (1.5 million, or 8%)
- Substance Use disorders (650,000, or 3%) (ABS 2023a).”
- The prevalence of mental illness varies by age and sex and has increased more rapidly than other serious illnesses – this increase has been more pronounced for young women (aged 15–34). In 2021, double the proportion of females aged 20–29 reported that they had been told by a doctor or nurse that they have a mental illness compared to males the same age (16% and 8%, respectively) (ABS 2022a)
- According to the HILDA survey, in 2021, the estimated prevalence of depression or anxiety was highest among younger women and men (aged 15–34) at 22%, compared to 15% for people aged 55 and over. Since 2017, mental illness prevalence rates exceed asthma, which had been the most common serious illness for this age group.”
“An estimated 8,514, 700 Australian aged 16-85 (43%) have experienced a mental illness in their lives.”
AIHW Australian Government. (2024). Prevalence and impact of mental illness. https://www.aihw.gov.au/mental-health/overview/prevalence-and-impact-of-mental-illness?ref=thelovepost.global
Mental Health on Academic Performance (2023)
“Mental health is an essential component of student success. Students struggling with poor mental health will face overall poor academic outcomes.
According to a 2022 YouthTruth student survey, over 50% of students at every high school grade level cited depression, stress, and anxiety as obstacles to learning—making these conditions ubiquitous in the culture of American teenagers. Additionally, the survey results indicated the percentage of students who feel happy about their lives declines 3–12 grades.
What is even more alarming is that fewer than half of secondary students—regardless of grade level, gender, race, or LGBTQ+ status—report they have an adult at school they can talk to when they feel upset or stressed, or have a problem.
It is abundantly clear mental health and academic performance are intertwined. Schools must take action if they intend to maintain their commitment to their students' overall well-being and academic excellence.
The Connection Between Mental Health and Academic Performance
Mental health challenges affect every facet of student life. Low self-esteem leads to decreased motivation and a lack of confidence when completing tasks or taking tests. Anxiety can make it difficult for students to study or attend classes. Depression can lead to decreased focus and concentration, making it hard for a student to remain engaged or complete work on time. But those are just a few of the complex challenges students face when managing their mental health and academic performance.
Left unaddressed, students with mental health challenges can experience adverse outcomes in their young lives. These include:
- trouble making friends,
- inability to learn, concentrate, or complete work,
- poor grades,
- absences,
- suspension, and
- expulsion.
Ultimately, left without support, students may even consider death by suicide.
When a student's unique needs are recognized, understood, and supported, they can showcase their strengths and reach their true potential. Student mental health needs are part of them, and it is your job as an educator to understand mental health implications in their learning.
What about students with learning differences?
Learning differences such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) also play a harmful role in academic performance, particularly when they are not addressed in a learning plan. In fact, 70% of students with learning disabilities experience more symptoms of anxiety than students without learning disabilities, with anxiety and reading disorders co-occurring in approximately one in four students.
For example, students with ADHD may need help focusing, even when placed in supportive learning environments. Poorly managed ADHD and learning could lead them to fall behind in their studies or fail classes altogether. In the most extreme cases, students could experience bullying because of their ADHD, leaving them feeling stigmatized, which could impact an undiagnosed or co-occurring mental health challenge.
Schools must recognize that all mental health conditions are real and take steps to provide accommodations. Doing so better allows students the opportunity to learn effectively despite any mental health challenges they may be facing.
Mental Health and Its Impact on School Community
Mental health issues among students have far-reaching implications for school communities at large.
- Teachers may become overwhelmed trying to manage students with mental health needs within the classroom setting.
- Counseling centers and learning support specialists may become overburdened with requests for help.
- Parents may be concerned about their child's ability to succeed academically.
- Other members of the school community may struggle with how best to support those in need.
ISM Independent School Management. Understanding the Impact of Mental Health on Academic Performance.
https://isminc.com/about-us/contact
Mental health literacy and psychological distress (2023)
“Abstract: Previous studies on the relationship between mental health literacy and psychological distress were rich, but little was known about the influence mechanism between them, and almost no research was found on the role of psychological resilience and subjective socio-economic status in the relationship between them.
This study used a moderated mediation model to test the mediating effect of psychological resilience on the relationship between mental health literacy and psychological distress, and the moderating effect of subjective socioeconomic status in Chinese adolescents. We investigated 700 junior high school students in Inner Mongolia, China through online survey.
The results are as follows: (1) Mental health literacy is a negative predictor of adolescents' psychological distress; (2) psychological resilience mediated the association between mental health literacy and psychological distress; (3) The first half of the model, that is, the relationship between mental health literacy and psychological resilience, is moderated by subjective socioeconomic status. Specifically, for adolescents with low subjective socioeconomic status, the positive predictive effect of mental health literacy on psychological resilience is obviously enhanced. The current findings would contribute to a deep understanding of the relationship among adolescents' mental health literacy, psychological resilience, subjective socioeconomic status and psychological distress, which may be of great significance to the prevention of adolescents' psychological distress.
… In recent years, adolescent mental health has become an urgent problem in the global public health field, which has aroused widespread concern of the public and professionals. A lot of evidence shows that the mental health of adolescents is deteriorating year by year, including anxiety, depression, psychological stress and suicide (Keyes et al., 2019, Twenge et al., 2019). During the epidemic in COVID-19, with the implementation of isolation measures, the lack of outdoor sports, the reduction of interpersonal communication and the excessive use of the Internet, adolescents experienced a higher proportion of anxiety, depression and stress than before the epidemic (Jones et al., 2021, Magson et al., 2021). Psychological distress is an uncomfortable state of negative emotions such as anxiety and depression (Gebremedhin et al., 2020). Studies have shown that psychological distress is a risk factor for adolescents' academic achievement, interpersonal relationships, self-injury and suicidal ideation (Hashim et al., 2012, Ibrahim et al., 2014, Kenny et al., 2013, McNicol and Thorsteinsson, 2017, You et al., 2012). Therefore, it is very necessary to explore the influencing mechanism of adolescents' psychological distress, which will help us find effective ways to intervene adolescents' psychological distress.”
Xuemin Zhang, Heng Yue, Xia Hao, Xiaohui Liu, Hugejiletu Bao. Exploring the relationship between mental health literacy and psychological distress in adolescents: A moderated mediation model, Preventive Medicine Reports, Volume 33, 2023, 102199, ISSN 2211-3355, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102199
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335523000906
The Link Between Mental Health & Academic Performance (2024)
“The fast paced academic world can be slow to see how a student’s mental health is so intimately connected to their academic performance. In most academic settings, academic success is the driving focus. Because of this many schools are left with an environment that feels slow to address the mental well-being of its students. When students aren’t able to address their mental health, then their academic performance will begin to drop as well. As poor mental health can lead to burnout, lack of motivation, inability to finish projects and more. Schools and students both can take steps to addressing mental health in academic settings.
Here are some of the main ways mental health impacts academic performance:
Cognitive Functions
Student’s mental health has a large impact on their cognitive abilities such as attention, memory, and problem-solving skills. When students are going through any kind of mental distress, it can lead to reduced focus and can hinder their ability to learn to the best of their ability.
Motivation and Engagement
When a student is in a good place mentally, then they tend to be more motivated and excited towards their school work. Their engagement and active participation in class goes up with their mood. On the flip side, however, when a student begins to struggle with their mental health their motivation and engagement in class begins to struggle as well.
Attendance and Participation
Mental health challenges are often a result of class absences. Many students who are struggling with poor mental health will feel as if they can’t go to class. As their motivation goes down, their ability to get to class does too.
It is important that we all keep an eye out for these patterns. When we are aware of what battling with mental health looks like in an academic setting like highschool or college, we can be on the lookout for it. Students, look out for your fellow scholars. Teachers, look out for your students and your coworkers. Lastly, look out for yourself. No one can do their job well while struggling with their mental health, so one of the best things we can do is reach out for help before we need it.”
“The results indicate that social selection mechanisms are present in all three periods studied. Behavioral and emotional problems at age 3 were associated with performing below grade at age 12. Similarly, mental health problems at age 12 were associated with lack of complete final grades from compulsory school and non-eligibility to higher education. Academic performance at ages 15 and 19 did not increase the risk for mental health problems at age 20. … Mental health problems in early childhood and adolescence increase the risk for poor academic performance, indicating the need for awareness and treatment to provide fair opportunities to education.
Conclusions
The study adds to the existing literature by the use of a large, two-generational cohort, and longitudinal prospective design with multiple data collection points, investigating the association between mental health and academic performance during different developmental periods from age 12 to 20. The results emphasize the necessity to detect externalizing and internalizing problems at a young age and continuously throughout the school years.
In practice, it means that these kinds of problems need to be noticed at preschool age and educational practices adjusted and adequate treatment given to promote transition to the school environment and completion of compulsory school. Knowledge and recognition of the potential effects of internalizing problems on academic performance might be especially important as these problems tend to be less explicit to others compared to externalizing problems.
No support was found for the association between academic performance during adolescence and mental health status in early adulthood in this Swedish context. However, this result needs to be interpreted in the light of a considerable drop-out rate and a long time span between measures of impact and outcome.”
Agnafors S, Barmark M, Sydsjö G. (2020). Mental health and academic performance: a study on selection and causation effects from childhood to early adulthood. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2021 May;56(5):857-866. doi: 10.1007/s00127-020-01934-5. Epub 2020 Aug 19.
How Does Poor Mental Health Affect Students (2021)
“Poor mental health can affect students at all stages of their university experience. Whether they are facing loneliness, anxiety or even depression, mental health difficulties can have a significant impact on a student’s ability to engage with their studies, make friends and make the most of their university experience.
In this blog we assess 6 major ways in which poor mental health can impact the student experience.
1. Engagement
Institutions often point to lower engagement with studies from students facing mental health challenges. Many universities now track engagement levels to identify students who may need support. Students with mental health challenges may seem less interested in their course, unwilling to engage in discussions and their attendance overall may decline.
Students facing anxiety or depression may feel unable to go into lectures or seminars or unable to face the social interaction that comes with daily university life. This often proves to have a knock-on effect on academic engagement. Students with mental health challenges may suddenly change their levels of engagement or seem less proactive. These signs of withdrawal are typical indicators of a student facing mental health risks.
2. Concentration
Students with mental health difficulties may also struggle with their concentration in seminars or lectures. They may be distracted by other challenges in life or may be feeling the strain of their mental health. This may mean students are unable to contribute to sessions in their usual way, take longer to understand concepts or are simply not able to focus on the task in hand. Lecturers or course leaders may notice a difference from the student’s usual performance or may recognise signs a student is distracted or unfocussed.
3. Attainment
Often the impact on engagement and concentration with academic studies can have a direct impact on attainment. Students facing mental health challenges may see a decline in their results or prove unable to respond effectively to the high-pressure expectations of exams and assignments. Results from a course and how they compare with previous performance can often indicate to lecturers and professors that a student may be struggling with their mental health.
Often expectations around attainment and results can often compound mental health issues and become the focus for anxiety, stress or depression.
4. Progression
Those with mental health challenges may also seem uninterested or unengaged with their long-term progression. Whether it be progression through the course or looking towards long term career goals and future employment, mental health risks can often block this long-term thinking. Students may be unable to think beyond the day they are facing or their immediate problems.
Mental health risks are often linked with higher levels of drops out and lower retention rates. Any institution should be looking to ensure that interventions are delivered early enough to prevent the needs for a student to withdraw from their course. It is often typical for students struggling with their mental health to face poorer student outcomes and be less likely to carry on to the next stage of their studies.
5. Energy and Enthusiasm
Not all the effects of mental health are directed towards the academic experience. The character and personality of a student may be impacted mental health challenges. This can mean that a student has less energy, they may seem less enthusiastic about university life and as a result may not engage with extra-curricular activities and social occasions.
Students with mental health risks may feel unable to leave their student accommodation and unable to face new experiences and challenges that come with university life. This lack of enthusiasm can often become a cycle in which they become more isolated and less able to engage with their peers and studies.
6. Sociability and Relationships
Student facing mental health risks can often very quickly become less sociable or less interested in making new friends or building relationships. Those around the student may notice they become withdrawn and unwilling to take part in social activities. Many students facing mental health risks need a support network and friends around them to help them and the change in these relationships can be a key warning sign.
No Student is the Same
It should be stressed that no student is the same. The impacts of poor mental health above are key indicators of a student facing mental health problems and needing support. However, some students may respond in an entirely different way. A student could seem entirely happy and engaged to others and yet be facing significant personal challenges. As such, it is vital that higher education institutions ensure that mental health support and awareness is easily accessible to all throughout the student lifecycle.”
Clark, C. (2021). How Does Poor Mental Health Affect Students 6 Key Impacts.. HE Professional.
https://heprofessional.co.uk/edition/how-does-poor-mental-health-affect-students-6-key-impacts
Bye folks
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This next segment is the original, broader document and includes earlier periods.
The relationship between mental health and literacy is not easy to disentangle, as studies are usually correlational in design. Certainly, there does appear to be a link - but does illiteracy cause mental health problems, or might mental health problems impede literacy development? Or perhaps a third variable affects both domains. One obvious candidate for a causal link involves extended failure caused or exacerbated by inadequate instruction, particularly in that first big educational hurdle – literacy development.
David Boulton of the Children of the Code fame writes about the unfortunate subjective experience of children with sustained educational low achievement, suggestive of an impact on self-esteem, mental health, and preparedness to persevere. His writings can be found by Googling the heading: Stewarding Healthy Learning.
What does it mean that most of our children are chronically improficient in the skill areas most critically important for success in school?
“What does it feel like - how does it feel, to be chronically, day after day, week after week, month after month, and for a great many children, year after year - not good enough? Not good enough at something that they know is important, that they know is causing them to fall behind, that they can’t seem to get good enough at achieving, and that they can’t hide because their family, friends, and peers know about it too?
What is the effect of chronically feeling ‘not good enough’ about your learning?
There can be a great many reasons why a child is below proficiency in a critical competency area: innate brain issues, impoverished family learning environments (poor developmental learning trajectories), low self-esteem, incompetent preschools, undifferentiated grade school instruction, and many others (including in some cases issue of 'effort'). None of the most common factors, are the child’s fault. Yet, we all conspire, unintentionally yet pervasively, to contribute to the conditions that cause children to experience their improficiencies as if they are their fault – as if they are struggling because they are not good enough, not trying hard enough, not smart enough, not good enough learners.
What do you feel when you blame yourself for not being good enough at something that is important to you and that you do in public? You feel shame.
So what NAEP (and our other educational data aggregations) tell us is that a vast number of our children are experiencing chronic self-blame/shame about not being good enough at learning. Put another way, education is creating the conditions in which a vast number of our children feel chronically ashamed of their minds.
How well do you do at things that cause you to feel ashamed of yourself when you do them? How long can you sustain trying to learn something that frustrates you and causes you to feel stupid? Everyday for a week… for a month… for a year… for years?
If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we are pretty good at doing whatever we have to do to avoid the situations that lead to that dreaded feeling of shame. When we feel ashamed of our looks, our bodies, our singing voices, or our dancing moves, we wear more make-up, we avoid wearing certain kinds of clothes, we stay away from Karaoke bars and dance floors. But what happens when learning challenges evoke shame? What happens to our learning when we feel ashamed of not learning well enough?
Being ashamed of our minds – being ashamed of our ability to learn (“mind-shame”) is learning disabling because we tend to avoid the shame we feel by avoiding the learning challenges that cause us to feel shame”.
David Boulton on Monday, 10 September 2012: See below or at http://www.learningstewards.org/what-does-it-mean-that-most-of-our-children-are-chronically-improficient-in-the-skills-most-critically-important-for-success-in-school/
Below are some quotes collected from papers investigating the literacy - mental health relationship. Both internalising and externalising behaviours are often noted:
“A growing literature indicates that children with reading difficulties are at elevated risk for both internalizing (emotional) and externalizing (behavioural) problems. Longitudinal studies have demonstrated that reading difficulties are prospectively associated with later internalizing (Arnold et al., 2005) and externalizing (Halonen et al., 2006; Snowling et al., 2007) symptoms, suggesting that reading difficulties are a risk factor for the development of later mental health problems. With regard to internalizing symptoms, reading difficulties have been shown to be associated with depression (Arnold et al., 2005; Eissa, 2010; Maughan & Carroll, 2006), anxiety (Arnold et al., 2005; Carroll & Iles, 2006; Carroll et al., 2005; Eissa, 2010; Whitehouse et al., 2009), somatic complaints (Arnold et al., 2005; Eissa, 2010), low mood (Carroll et al., 2005) and general socio-emotional problems (Terras et al., 2009). With regard to externalizing symptoms, reading difficulties have been associated with behavioural problems (Maughan & Carroll, 2006; Snowling et al., 2007; Terras et al., 2009), conduct disorder (Carroll et al., 2005; Thambirajah, 2010), and both anger and aggression (Eissa, 2010; Morgan et al., 2012).” (p. 263)
Boyes, M.E., Leitao, S., Claessen, M., Badcock, N.A., & Nayton, M. (2016). Why are reading difficulties associated with mental health problems? Dyslexia, 22, 263–266.
"A few studies have evaluated whether poor reading performance negatively impacts “distal” feelings and behaviors that are not specific to reading activities. In these studies, poor readers have been reported to be more likely to act out or be aggressive (e.g., Morgan, Farkas, & Wu, 2009; Trzesniewski, Moffitt, Caspi, Taylor, & Maughan, 2006), distractible and inattentive (Goldston et al., 2007; Morgan, Farkas, Tufis, & Sperling, 2008), and anxious and depressed (Arnold et al., 2005; Carroll, Maughan, Goodman, & Meltzer, 2005). Older poor readers have been reported to be more likely to consider or attempt suicide (Daniel et al., 2006)
The increasingly generalized Matthew effects are more likely to occur as children age (Stanovich, 1986) if they begin to avoid reading activities both at home and in school, thereby further constraining growth in their basic reading skills, comprehension, and, eventually, cognitive functioning (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1991; Echols, West, Stanovich, & Zehr, 1996; Griffiths & Snowling, 2002; Guthrie, Schafer, & Huang, 2001; Senechal, LeFevre, Hudson, & Lawson, 1996). The children’s resulting inability to meet their classroom’s academic demands can lead to increasingly frequent feelings of frustration, agitation, withdrawal, and social isolation (e.g., Fleming, Harachi, Cortes, Abbott, & Catalano, 2004; Kellam, Mayer, Rebok, & Hawkins, 1998; Lane, Beebe-Frankenberger, Lambros, & Pierson, 2001; Wehby, Falk, Barton-Arwood, Lane, & Cooley, 2003). These feelings and behaviors may in turn further interfere with children’s learning" (p.361).
"We investigated whether and to what extent being a poor reader increases a child’s likelihood of reporting feeling angry, distractible, sad, lonely, anxious, and unpopular. Poor reading performance has repeatedly been hypothesized to contribute to children’s socioemotional maladjustment (e.g., Stanovich, 1986). Although there is some evidence indicating that poor reading performance results in “proximal” negative Matthew effects (e.g., poorer attitude toward reading, less persistence during reading tasks, less independent reading practice), less is known about the “distal” or more generalized effects on socioemotional maladjustment (e.g., frequently feeling angry, sad, or unpopular). To better estimate these predicted relationships, we statistically controlled for a range of child-, family-, school-, and community-level confounds including the autoregressor. Multilevel logistic regression analyses indicated that poor readers are at substantially greater risk of socioemotional maladjustment. This was the case across multiple self-report measures as well as after extensive statistical control of possible confounding factors" (p.373).
Morgan, P.L., Farkas, G., & Qiong, W. (2012). Do poor readers feel angry, sad, and unpopular? Scientific Studies of Reading, 16(4), 360-381.
“Thus, abnormal amygdalar connectivity may contribute to making the act of reading a slow, effortful, and anxiety-provoking experience for some children with RD. These findings suggest a potential opportunity for the development of novel cognitive-behavioral treatments for RD that could improve reading ability by targeting anxiety symptoms underlying slow and dysfluent reading. … In conclusion, relative to TD peers, children with RD demonstrate increased symptoms of anxiety, as well as abnormal RSFC patterns from amygdala subregions. These amygdalar RSFC abnormalities are similar to those seen in children with anxiety disorder, suggesting that the symptoms of anxiety in pediatric RD are biologically based and, while oftentimes subclinical, interfere with functioning and warrant targeted assessment and treatment.” (p.7, 8)
Davis, K., Margolis, A.E., Thomas, L., Huo, Z., & Marsh, R. (2018). Amygdala sub-regional functional connectivity predicts anxiety in children with reading disorder. Developmental Science, 6-7. Online First.
“Children with reading and spelling disorder are often seen in outpatient healthcare services—for example, in pediatric practices or public health services—for psychosomatic symptoms, such as headaches or stomach aches, nausea, and lack of motivation/drive. If children or adolescents repeatedly experience failures at school, the may develop severe fear of failure and negative self-conception of their own ability. The comorbidity with externalizing and internalizing disorders is correspondingly high (6). Some 20% of children and adolescents with a reading disorder develop an anxiety disorder, but depression and conduct disorders are also common (7–10). Untreated and without specific support, reading and spelling disorder often results in failure at, or absenteeism from school, with grave consequences for professional education and training and for psychological wellbeing in adulthood (11–13).” (p. 279)
Galuschka, K., & Schulte-Korne, G. (2016). The diagnosis and treatment of reading and/or spelling disorders in children and adolescents. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, 113(16), 279-286.
“Significant levels of general anxiety have been found to be negatively associated with reading skills for children (Merryman, 1974; Calvo and Carreiras, 1993; Tsovili, 2004; Grills-Taquechel et al., 2012, 2013, Grills et al., 2014; Plakopiti and Bellou, 2014). Studies with adult dyslexics have reported higher levels of general anxiety (Tsovili, 2004; Carroll and Iles, 2006; Plakopiti and Bellou, 2014), and academic and social anxiety (Boetsch et al., 1996; Carroll and Iles, 2006). For example, Meer et al. (2016) found that when asked to read aloud, adults with dyslexia exhibit higher level of physical arousal typically related to anxiety as measured by their Galvanic skin response when compared to typical readers. Taken together, the studies on children and adults with reading difficulties suggest that these readers show elevated level of anxiety.” (p. 2)
Katzir, T., Young-Suk, G.K., & Dotan, S. (2018). Reading self-concept and reading anxiety in second grade children: The roles of word reading, emergent literacy skills, working memory and gender. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1180), 1-13. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226242495_The_role_of_reading_self-concept_and_home_literacy_practices_in_fourth_grade_reading_comprehension
“Many children with difficulty in learning to read develop a negative self-concept within their first two years of schooling”.
Chapman, J.W., Tunmer, W.E., & Prochnow, J.E. (2000). Early reading-related skills and performance, reading self-concept, and the development of academic self-concept: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 4, 703–708.
“Young boys with reading problems were three times more likely to report high levels of depressed mood than their peers. The reading problems influenced boys' risk of depressed mood”.
Maugban, B. (2003). Reading problems and depressed mood. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31, 210-229.
“ … evidence that internalizing symptoms (Sideridis, 2007; Valâs, 2001) and dysfunctional cognitive-emotional processes (Bauminger & Kimhi-Kind, 2008; Conradi, Jang, & McKenna, 2014; Katzir, Lesaux, & Kim, 2009) are common among students experiencing academic difficulties, regardless of the nature of their core academic deficit. Although research linking cognitive and emotional regulation processes is still in its infancy and the current study was not designed to address this topic, our results are generally consistent with a generic shutdown of the system that controls reading performance, caused by the additive effects of limited cognitive resources and print-related skills and compounded by cognitive and emotion self-regulation difficulty. … a student’s motivational/emotional sphere does not function in a linear way and that the accumulated effects of failure and frustration may lead to dramatic changes in students’ behaviors, such as choosing to withdraw from a task, competency, or skill area overall. Educators need to be sensitive to changes in students’ emotionality and mood to prevent such episodes and to help students maintain a level of integrity and achievement that is necessary for them to maintain proper levels of engagement.” (p.9)
Sideridis, G.D., Simos, P., Mouzaki, A., Stamovlasis, D., & Georgiou, G.K. (2018). Can the relationship between rapid automatized naming and word reading be explained by a catastrophe? Empirical evidence from students with and without reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 1–12.
"Reading difficulties have been linked to externalizing behaviors, including classroom discipline problems, bullying, and aggression, as well as internalizing behaviors, including depression and anxiety (Catalano et al., 2003; Kellam, Mayer, Rebok, & Hawkins, 1998; Miller & Shinn, 2005). In severe cases, a child may perceive reading failure as a personal threat with harmful consequences (Herman & Ostrander, 2007). … language minority status does not appear to render young poor readers in urban elementary schools more vulnerable to academic, behavioral, or emotional problems beyond the vulnerability associated with being poor readers in urban schools.” (p.183-4, 197)
Pierce, M.E., Wechsler-Zimring, A., Noam, G., Wolf, M., & Katzir, T. (2013). Behavioral problems and reading difficulties among language minority and monolingual urban elementary school students. Reading Psychology, 34(2), 182-205.
“The role of comorbidities for the effectiveness of therapeutic methods in the setting of reading and spelling disorder has thus far been underestimated. These comorbidities often include anxiety disorders, depressive symptoms, hyperkinetic disorder or attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and absenteeism from school, and conduct disorders in adolescents. ADHD is four times more common in children and adolescents with reading and spelling disorder, and the prevalence in children whose reading and spelling disorder has already been diagnosed is 8–18% (7, 9, 32). Furthermore, a notably increased prevalence of anxiety disorders (20%) and depressive disorders (14.5%) was found in young persons with reading and spelling disorder. The risk for being found to have an anxiety disorder in existing reading and spelling disorder is quadrupled. For social phobia, there are indications that the risk increases sixfold (7, 9, 10). The comorbid occurrence of reading and spelling disorder and specific disorder of arithmetical skills is significantly increased. The prevalence rate was between 20% and 40% in children who had already been diagnosed with reading and spelling disorder. The risk of a disorder of arithmetical skills is increased by four to five times (33). The prevalence of both disorders in the total population is 3–8% (33–37).” (p.283)
Galuschka, K., & Schulte-Korne, G. (2016). The diagnosis and treatment of reading and/or spelling disorders in children and adolescents. Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, 113(16), 279-286.
“ … failure in achievement tasks may constitute a stress factor that can trigger a depression episode, particularly for students with learning disabilities (LD), and a particular motivational pattern may constitute a cognitive diathesis for depression”.
Sideridis, G.D. (2007). Why are students with LD depressed? A goal orientation model of depression vulnerability. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40(6), 526-539.
“A pathway from reading difficulties to anxiety or depression may be mediated by poor readers' well-established vulnerability to problems in academic (and possibly more global) self-esteem.”
Chapman, J. W. (1988). Cognitive-motivational characteristics and academic-achievement of learning-disabled children-A longitudinal-study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 357-365.
“This longitudinal study of 105 economically disadvantaged children examined the relation between reading problems and internalizing behavior in 3rd- and 5th-grade assessments (8- to 12-year olds). The variable-centered results showed that reading problems predicted change in internalizing behavior in the context of child and family predictors. The person-centered results showed that children with reading problems in both grades had higher internalizing scores in 5th grade but not in 3rd grade than children with reading problems in 3rd grade or no problems. Child-reported negative emotion experiences varied similarly across grade. The results tie reading problems to emotional distress in school and support conclusions about the direction of effects and the internalization of academic difficulty for disadvantaged children.”
Ackerman, B. P., Izard, C. E., Kobak, R., Brown, E. D., & Smith, C. (2007). Relation between reading problems and internalizing behavior in school for preadolescent children from economically disadvantaged families. Child Development, 78, 581-596.
“This article presents the results of a meta-analysis of the empirical literature on anxious symptomatology among school-aged students with learning disabilities (LD) in comparison to their non-LD peers. Fifty-eight studies met inclusion criteria. Results indicate that students with LD had higher mean scores on measures of anxiety than did non-LD students. The overall effect size was statistically significant and medium in magnitude (d = .61) although substantial heterogeneity of results was found. Moderator effects were examined for informant type, gender, grade, publication status, and identification source. Informant type (i.e., self-, parent, or teacher report) explained a significant amount of variability in the sample of studies, and identification source (i.e., school identified or special school and clinic/hospital identified) approached statistical significance. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed” (p.3).
Nelson, J.M., & Harwood, H. (2011). Learning disabilities and anxiety: A meta-analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 44(1), 3-17.
“The twin study indicated that increased rates of internalizing symptomatology among poor readers were attributable to reading problems rather than to shared family factors.”
Willcutt, E. G., & Pennington, B. F. (2000). Psychiatric comorbidity in children and adolescents with reading disability. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41, 1039-1048.
”By the secondary grades, struggling readers have little confidence in their ability to succeed in reading and little sense of themselves as readers (Collins, 1996). Guthrie, Alao, and Rinehart (1997) noted an "eroding sense of confidence" in these students. They are acutely aware of their reading problems (Wigfield & Eccles, 1994) and likely to suffer serious psychological consequences, including anxiety, low motivation for learning, and lack of self-efficacy. … We have not found evidence that boosting self-esteem (by therapeutic interventions or school programs) causes benefits. Our findings do not support continued widespread efforts to boost self-esteem in the hope that it will by itself foster improved outcomes. In view of the heterogeneity of high self-esteem, indiscriminate praise might just as easily promote narcissism, with its less desirable consequences. Instead, we recommend using praise to boost self-esteem as a reward for socially desirable behavior and self-improvement.”
Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(1), 1-44. http://www.psychologicalscience.org/journals/pspi/4_1.html
“We almost need a trauma centre to take care of this problem, it’s that serious for kids that can’t read.”
Manzo, K.K. (2004). Reading programs bear similarities across states. Education Week, 23, 1-5.
“Many factors contribute to individual differences in adolescent reading ability. For example, there is a correlation between behavioural and emotional difficulties and reading ability in adolescents (Arnold et al., 2005). … Poor reading ability amongst adolescents has negative implications for psycho-social and educational development. A study by Daniel et al. (2006) showed that fifteen-year old adolescents with poor reading ability were more likely to experience suicidal ideas or attempts, and dropout of school than typical readers, suggesting that adolescents with poor reading ability can be labelled as being at social risk.” (p. 116)
Paul, S-A.S, & Clarke, P.J. (2016). A systematic review of reading interventions for secondary school students. International Journal of Educational Research, 79, 116–127.
“More suffer life-harm from illiteracy than from parental abuse, accidents, and all other childhood diseases and disorders combined.”
Whitehurst, G. (2003). Children of the Code interview: Evidence based education, science and the challenge of learning to read. Retrieved January 11, 2004, from http://www.childrenofthecode.org/cotcintro.htm
“These children thus have an increased lifetime risk for a broad range of psychiatric disorders (Esser, Schmidt, & Woerner, 1990), and particularly depressive disorders and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (McNulty, 2003). For example, when compared to other pupils, college students with learning disabilities were found to be nearly three times more likely to have depressive illness, and have more problems with their grades and quality of their coping skills (Arnold, 2000). Even when the consequences of learning disabilities such as harsh self-appraisal do not merit psychiatric diagnoses, children and adults with learning disabilities can still experience diminished confidence in the efficacy of their own academic, cognitive, and occupational efforts, having internalized repeated exposure to frustration (Cummings, Maddux, & Casey, 2000). As members of the adult workforce, those with learning disabilities are more likely to experience unemployment, or underemployment, and to earn less than non-disabled adults (Cummings et al., 2000). Even among adults who possess college degrees, routine workplace demands can prove more difficult for employees with learning disabilities than for their coworkers, diminishing their productivity and value to employers (Dickenson & Verbeek, 2002).”
Lange, S.M., & Thompson, B. (2006). Early identification and interventions for children at risk for learning disabilities. International Journal of Special Education, 21(3), 108-119. Retrieved October 19, from http://www.internationalsped.com/documents/92%20Lange.doc
“It is well recognized that children with disabilities exhibit learning and behavioral problems at an early age” (Kamps et al., 2003 p. 212).
Kamps, D.M., Wills, H. P., Greenwood, C. R., Thorne, S., Lazo, J. F., Crockett, J. L., Akers, J. M., & Swaggart, B. L. (2003). Curriculum influences on growth in early reading fluency for students with academic and behavioral risks: A descriptive study. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 11, 211-224.
“Behaviour problems among children with learning disorders are about 3 times than the norm by 8 years of age” (p.295).
Mash, E.J., & Wolfe, D.A. (2002). Abnormal child psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Thomson Learning.
“To investigate the hypothesis that learning disabilities (LD) play a part in adolescent suicide, all available suicide notes (n = 27) from 267 consecutive adolescent suicides were analyzed for spelling and handwriting errors. The suicide notes were dictated to adolescents with LD and adolescent non-LD controls. The results showed that 89% of the 27 adolescents who committed suicide had significant deficits in spelling and handwriting that were similar to those of the adolescents with LD, and they were significantly more impaired than the non-LD adolescents and older adults (65 and older) who had committed suicide in the same time period and in the same geographical area”.
McBride, H.E.A, & Siegel, L.S. (1997). Learning disabilities and adolescent suicide. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 30(6), 652-659.
“Nonhandicapped students with greater depressive characteristics were more likely to be hyperactive and less likely to be accepted by their peers. They were also less likely to achieve adequately in reading recognition, reading comprehension, arithmetic, and writing” (Cullinan, Schloss, & Epstein, 1987, p. 96).
Cullinan, D., Schloss, P. J., & Epstein, M. H. (1987). Relative prevalence and correlates of depressive characteristics among seriously emotionally disturbed and nonhandicapped students. Behavioral Disorders, 12, 90-98.
“…the poorer the academic performance, the higher the delinquency” (Manguin & Loeber, 1996, p. 246).
Manguin, E., & Loeber, R. (1996). Academic performance and delinquency. In M. Tonry (Ed.), Crime and justice: An annual review of research: Vol. 20 (p. 145-264). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kellam, S. G., Mayer, L. S., Rebok, G. W., & Hawkins, W. E. (1998). Effects of improving achievement on aggressive behavior and of improving aggressive behavior on achievement through two preventive interventions: An investigation of casual paths. In B. P. Dohrenwend (Ed.), Adversity, stress, and psychopathology (pp. 486-505). New York: Oxford University Press.
“The concomitant relationship between academic underachievement and emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) is one that has been repeatedly established in research literature” (Wehby, Falk, Barton-Arwood, Lane, & Cooley, 2003, p. 225).
Wehby, J. H., Falk, K.B., Barton-Arwood, S., Lane, K. L., & Cooley, C. (2003). The impact of comprehensive reading instruction on the academic and social behavior of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 11, 225-238.
“Reading difficulties are highly comorbid with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Willcutt & Pennington, 2000a), with as many as 15–40% of children with reading difficulties also meeting criteria for ADHD (Maughan & Carroll, 2006; Willcutt & Pennington, 2000a). However, the relationship between reading ability and ADHD appears to be specific to attentional problems with less evidence of a link between reading ability and hyperactivity (Carroll et al., 2005).” (p. 126)
Boyes, M.E., Tebbutt, B., Preece, K.A., & Badcock, N.A. (2018). Relationships between reading ability and child mental health: moderating effects of self‐esteem. Australian Psychologist 53(2), 125–133.
There are gender issues too.
“Finally, gender might play a role in the development of reading self-concept and anxiety. From the early years of elementary school, girls are reported to have lower expectations and less confidence about future academic achievements than do boys (Frey and Ruble, 1987; Pressley et al., 1987). Moreover, girls were shown to be more affected by failure experiences than matched – ability boys (Licht and Dweck, 1984; Dweck, 1986). Later, in secondary education, girls further decline in academic selfconcept at a faster rate than boys (De Fraine et al., 2007) despite the fact that girls tend to report enjoying reading more than do boys (Guthrie and Greaney, 1991), reading more books than do boys (Elley, 1994) and more motivated to read (Wigfield and Guthrie, 1997). When it comes to differential reading competence as a function of gender, high performance in word reading was associated with positive perceived competence in reading among girls whereas poorer achievers and boys had inflated self-perceptions such that they had positive perceived competence despite their low performance in word reading (Fives et al., 2014). … A plausible explanation for these findings may be related to the fact that girls generally have lower confidence with regard to academic achievements (Wigfield and Meece, 1988; Frenzel et al., 2007). Most importantly, a future fine-grained look at gendered responses to reading experiences (success and failure) is needed. It may be that girls are more critical of themselves in response to their own internal feedback as well as external feedback (Marsh, 1986). Another important possibility that requires a future investigation is the potential social factors in the differential development of reading self-concept and reading anxiety as a function of gender. The higher reading anxiety among girls may be the result of gender stereotypes, which are known to influence children as early as second grade (Jameson, 2014). Stereotypes of females as helpless, passive, and dependent result in girls’ reduced feelings of control and promote internal worry in girls (Pomerantz et al., 2002).” (p.3, 10)
Katzir, T., Young-Suk, G.K., & Dotan, S. (2018). Reading self-concept and reading anxiety in second grade children: The roles of word reading, emergent literacy skills, working memory and gender. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1180), 1-13. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226242495_The_role_of_reading_self-concept_and_home_literacy_practices_in_fourth_grade_reading_comprehension
So, the results are serious. What about detection and interventions?
Apart from the risk of low reading progress causing anxiety, it’s also possible that this anxiety acts as an impediment to progress when reading interventions are implemented with the struggling readers. It’s possible too that pre-existing anxiety may interfere with students’ learning from the outset. Either way, there is beginning to be a recognition that addressing the anxiety issue in company with exemplary instruction may enhance the instructional effectiveness, but also be important for the students’ continued academic and socio-emotional progress.
“ … researchers should begin to more broadly investigate the contribution of additional socioemotional domains, including anxiety, into existing intervention programs for children at-risk for reading difficulties. It may be that the inclusion of such anxiety/stress management programs provides children with additional skills that can enhance their ability to learn and/or implement learned academic material…. the findings add to the emerging database on characteristics of inadequate responders to instruction, suggesting that anxiety may be a prominent non-cognitive characteristic of some inadequate responders.”
Grills-Taquechel, A. E., Fletcher, J. M., Vaughn, S. R., Barth, A.E., Denton, C.A., & Stuebing, K. K. (2014). Anxiety and response to reading intervention among first grade students. Child and Youth Care Forum, 43(4), 417-431.
“It may be the case that mental health problems arise as a direct consequence of reading difficulties. If this is the case, then remediation of reading skills should also improve child self-esteem and mental health. Many child mental health measures (such as the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; Goodman, 1997) are short, easy to administer, and can be completed by children, parents, or teachers. These measures could be included as secondary outcomes in trials of interventions to remediate reading. Of particular interest would be investigating whether reading intervention improves reading/academic-related self esteem, and whether this is linked with improvements in mental health.” (p. 265)
Boyes, M.E., Leitao, S., Claessen, M., Badcock, N.A., & Nayton, M. (2016). Why are reading difficulties associated with mental health problems? Dyslexia, 22, 263–266.
“A recent synthesis examining the effects of intervention research on the self-concept of students with LD indicates at the elementary level that academic interventions are the most effective means of improving self-concept (Elbaum & Vaughn, 1999).”
Elbaum, B. E., & Vaughn, S. (1999, May). A meta-analysis of intervention studies for students with LD and their effects on self-concept. Paper presented at the National Council for Learning Disabilities Summit, Washington, DC.
“ … all measures indicated less favorable outcomes among the LD group than among the control group, suggesting that a notable share of individuals with LD have problems with mental health, are unable or delayed in attaining degrees after compulsory education, and have difficulties gaining (or keeping) employment. Second, LD subgroup differences were found: MD was more strongly associated with antidepressant use and unemployment than RD. Moreover, gender-related subgroup differences emerged, indicating that RD was a more prominent risk for males, while for females, MD with or without RD resulted more often than RD in the use of antidepressants and the lack of a secondary degree. … All our indicators of mental health problems, that is, having received sickness allowances or disability pensions on the basis of psychiatric diagnoses and having received reimbursements for psychoactive medication expenses, indicated more problems among the group with childhood LD diagnosis than among the population-based reference group. The higher percentage of individuals receiving sickness allowances or disability pensions indicates that mental health problems were a more common reason for incapacity to work among the LD group than the controls.” (p. 9)
“The findings suggest that strategies and personal attributes aimed at circumventing difficulties should be a priority in special education early on, and they should be given at least equal attention as efforts to enhance academic skills. Earlier research suggests that certain interpersonal factors, such as community and social support (e.g., Miller, 2002; Panicker & Chelliah, 2016; Raskind et al., 1999), and intrapersonal factors—such as self-awareness, proactivity, self-esteem, perseverance, and effective coping strategies (e.g., Gardynik & McDonald, 2005; Idan & Margalit, 2014; Miller, 2002; Raskind et al., 1999; Spekman, Goldberg, & Herman, 1992; Werner, 1993)—are relevant predictors of coping with LD, and they predict success better than variables like IQ, academic achievement, life stressors, age, gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity (Raskind et al., 1999). When these “success attributes” are understood as a set of skills that can be rehearsed and learned, rather than specific or stable individual characteristics, it opens new horizons and prospects for developing supportive programs or therapeutic approaches to enhance psychological well-being in, for example, special education settings or psychotherapeutic relationships.” (p. 11)
Aro, T., Eklund, K., Eloranta, A-K., Närhi, V., Korhonen, E., & Ahonen, T. (2018). Associations between childhood learning disabilities and adult-age mental health problems, lack of education, and unemployment. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 1–13.
Kellam, S.G. (1999). Developmental epidemiologically-based prevention research: From efficacy to effectiveness. National Institute of Mental Health Fifth Annual National Conference on Prevention Research. http://www.oslc.org/spr/ecpn/nckellam.html
“ ... a successful learning experience is itself a major contribution to mental health” (p.153).
Steinberg, Z., & Knitzer, J. (1992). Classrooms for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed students: Facing the challenge. Behavioral Disorders, 17, 145-156.
Kellam, S. G., Rebok, G. W., Mayer, L. S., Iaolongo, N., & Kalodner, C. R. (1994). Depressive symptoms over 1st-grade and their response to a developmental epidemiologically based preventive trial aimed at improving achievement. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 463-481.
Bowen, J., Jenson, W.R., & Clark, E. (2004). School-based interventions for students with behavior problems. New York: Kluwer Academic.
“…U.S. and international literacy campaigns routinely invoke the positive effects of literacy and schooling upon child development, public health, and crime prevention” (Vanderstaay, 2006, p. 331).
Vanderstaay, S. L. (2006). Learning from longitudinal research in criminology and the health sciences. Reading Research Quarterly, 41, 328-350.
“ … reading rate influences how one feels as a reader, which then, influences worry and anxiety about reading.… but it also makes a direct contribution to reading self-concept over and above reading anxiety. … Children who exhibit a lower sense of competence in reading are those who are afraid of reading and may subsequently develop avoidance. These findings in young children, as early as the end of second grade, underscore the importance of evaluating a wide spectrum of emotions, both positive and negative, in developing readers. As the initial stages of reading acquisition may be particularly more challenging for some children, the long term effects of these feelings should be examined and monitored over time. Addressing these feelings early on may help diminish their impact over time. … Previous studies have shown that reading motivation is malleable such that a 4-week motivational engagement program has recently been linked to significantly higher reading comprehension of seventh grade students (Guthrie and Klauda, 2014). While a substantial amount of research has focused on reading motivation in children (Bates et al., 2016), future work should work on other aspects such as reading self-concept and anxiety in terms of intervention.” (p.8-10)
Katzir, T., Young-Suk, G.K., & Dotan, S. (2018). Reading self-concept and reading anxiety in second grade children: The roles of word reading, emergent literacy skills, working memory and gender. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(1180), 1-13. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226242495_The_role_of_reading_self-concept_and_home_literacy_practices_in_fourth_grade_reading_comprehension
“If embedded into the curriculum and delivered by school staff, school-based prevention and intervention programs are cost-effective and can reduce risks for later mental health problems in primary school children generally (Neil & Christensen, 2009). However, universal mental health or prevention programs typically yield small effect sizes (Durlak et al., 2011). Given that the majority of children will not develop a mental health problem, it would be helpful to see if such programs are particularly effective for potentially vulnerable subgroups such as children with reading difficulties. If this is the case, the skills targeted by these interventions may be salient risk and resilience-promoting factors moderating and/or mediating associations between reading difficulties and mental health.” (p.265)
Boyes, M.E., Leitao, S., Claessen, M., Badcock, N.A., & Nayton, M. (2016). Why are reading difficulties associated with mental health problems? Dyslexia, 22, 263–266.
Does self-esteem come into it? Maybe.
“A number of studies have examined relationships between reading ability and global self-esteem, as well as self-esteem in specific domains (McArthur, Francis, Caruana, Boyes, & Badcock, 2016). With regard to general self-esteem, the findings are mixed. A number of studies have reported poor general self-esteem, general self-concept, or general self-worth in children with reading difficulties (Alexander-Passe, 2006; Humphrey & Mullins, 2002); however, other studies have reported no deficits in general self-esteem (Frederickson & Jacobs, 2001; Terras et al., 2009). There are also mixed findings regarding relationships between reading ability and social (Alexander- Passe, 2006; Boetsch et al., 1996; Terras et al., 2009), parent home (Alexander-Passe, 2006; Humphrey & Mullins, 2002), and physical self-esteem (Boetsch et al., 1996; Humphrey & Mullins, 2002; Terras et al., 2009). In contrast, findings regarding academic self-esteem are more equivocal with the majority Reading, self-esteem, and child mental health ME Boyes et al. of studies reporting that reading difficulties are associated with poorer academic self-esteem (Alexander-Passe, 2006; Boetsch et al., 1996; Casey, Levy, Brown, & Brooks-Gunn, 1992; Frederickson & Jacobs, 2001; Humphrey & Mullins, 2002; McArthur, Castles, Kohnen, & Banales, 2016; Snowling, Muter, & Carroll, 2007; Terras et al., 2009). … the current study demonstrates that reading ability is associated with internalising symptoms and that self-esteem moderates the impact of reading ability on externalising symptoms and total difficulty scores. This is an important and novel finding, which suggests that children’s self-esteem can help buffer against the negative mental health impacts of poor reading ability.” (p. 126-7, 131)
Boyes, M.E., Tebbutt, B., Preece, K.A., & Badcock, N.A. (2018). Relationships between reading ability and child mental health: moderating effects of self‐esteem. Australian Psychologist 53(2), 125–133.
So, what's the takeaway?
Be aware of the potential impact of a student's difficulty in learning to read on his whole life. Screen early for literacy progress, and act accordingly with evidence-based programs. Be alert for those low-progress readers whose demeanour is not quite right. Red flag such children, and redouble efforts to alter their literacy trajectory, using Response to Intervention techniques. Refer for mental health assessment if, despite the school's efforts, the student continues to show signs of emotional distress.
Further references:
Algozzine, B., Wang, C., & Violette, A. S. (2010). Reexamining the relationship between academic achievement and social behavior. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 13, 3-16.
Martin, A. J. (2011). Courage in the classroom: Exploring a new framework predicting academic performance and engagement. School Psychology Review, 26, 145-160.
Trzesniewski, K. H., Moffitt, T. E., Caspi, A., Taylor, A., & Maughan, B. (2006). Revisiting the association between reading achievement and antisocial behavior: New evidence of an environmental explanation from a twin study. Child Development, 77, 72-88.
Wang, M-T. (2009). School climate support for behavioral and psychological adjustment: Testing the mediating effect of social competence. School Psychology Quarterly, 24, 240-251.
