Mental health problems in childhood and adolescence are common and they cast a long shadow over
our lives. They affect not only our mental health as adults but also our chances of doing well at school
and in work, of forming strong families and of becoming good citizens.
We examined the long-term consequences of childhood and adolescent mental health problems, not
just for adult mental health but for a wide range of economic and social outcomes. We used a unique
resource: three national birth cohorts that have been tracking large representative samples of people
born in the UK in 1946, 1958 and 1970.