Mental health, gender, and higher education attainment

Burger, Kaspar; Strassmann Rocha, Diego (2023). Mental health, gender, and higher education attainment. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, pp. 1-34. Springer 10.1007/s11618-023-01187-3

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We compared the mental health of higher education students with that of nonstudents. Moreover, we examined whether the mental health of students predicts their probability of obtaining a higher education degree, and whether the extent to which mental health affects educational attainment varies by gender. Drawing on a risk and resilience framework, we considered five facets of mental health that may be implicated in distinct ways in the educational attainment process: positive attitude towards life, self-esteem, self-efficacy, negative affectivity, and perceived stress. We used data from a nationally representative panel study from Switzerland (Nstudents= 2070, 42.8% male; Nnonstudents= 3755, 45.9% male). The findings suggest that overall, themental health of higher education students was relatively similar to that of nonstudents, although students exhibited slightly higher self-esteem, slightly weaker self-efficacy, greater negative affectivity, and higher levels of perceived stress. The effects of different facets of mental health on higher education degree attainment were mostly statistically and/or practically insignificant. However, positive attitudes towards life had a substantial positive effect on the probability of being awarded a higher education degree. Mental health was equally important for male and female students’ educational attainment.

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