Hospital admissions amongst high-achieving adolescents from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds

High-achieving children from disadvantaged backgrounds are an important group for promoting social mobility. Prior research has found their educational achievement does not keep pace with their more socio-economically advantaged peers during secondary school, with early adolescence identified as a key period when their academic potential starts to go unfulfilled. This paper presents new evidence on the health outcomes of this group during this period, focusing on mental health and behaviour-related hospital admissions. We find high-achieving children from disadvantaged backgrounds are hospitalised due to mental health and behaviour-related issues at a rate of around 80 per 1,000 children between the ages of 11 and 20. This is significantly above the rate of around 40 per 1,000 children for their equally able but more socio-economically advantaged peers. Our results hence provide further evidence that early adolescence is a key period during which high-achieving children from disadvantaged backgrounds require further support.