Poverty amplifies mental health risks for children with intellectual disabilities

UK researchers found that deprivation, free school meal eligibility and lower parental education were linked to greater emotional and behavioural difficulties among children and young people with intellectual developmental disabilities.

Children with intellectual disabilities are more likely to experience mental health problems when they also face socioeconomic disadvantage, according to researchers at University College London. The study, published in JCPP Advances, found that children and young people with intellectual developmental disabilities from poorer backgrounds showed higher levels of emotional and behavioural difficulties and were more likely to have mental health diagnoses. In a wider research landscape, other recent studies have also linked socioeconomic disadvantage with adolescent brain development, mental health and educational outcomes.

The team examined 2,778 children and young people aged four to 25 across the UK who were taking part in the IMAGINE-ID cohort, a study of intellectual developmental disabilities caused by genetic conditions such as 16p11.2 microdeletion syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome and Angelman syndrome, as well as inherited variants. Parents and caregivers completed questionnaires about health, development and behaviour, while the researchers measured disadvantage using neighbourhood deprivation, eligibility for free school meals and parental education.

The pattern was consistent across the main indicators of disadvantage. Children living in more deprived areas, those eligible for free school meals and those whose parents had lower levels of education were more likely to have low mood, stress-related physical symptoms, conduct problems and peer difficulties. They were also more likely to be reported as having depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder. Children eligible for free school meals were 2.5 times as likely to have a reported diagnosis of major depression and 2.3 times as likely to have conduct disorder as those who were not eligible.

The findings did not show a clear link between more severe learning disability and worse mental health, suggesting that social and economic circumstances may matter more than disability severity alone. The researchers said the study could not prove cause and effect, because it captured families at a single point in time and relied heavily on parent reports. Even so, the results fit with broader research showing that disadvantage can shape adolescent mental health, academic achievement and neurodevelopment.