The association of positive educational experiences with adolescents’ depressive symptoms: longitudinal evidence from a trial cohort in English secondary schools

Introduction The school environment influences adolescent health through both individual experiences, such as one’s own engagement with school, and broader school-level factors, such as aggregate student levels of engagement, affecting all students. For mental-health outcomes, existing evidence more consistently supports individual-level influences than school-level effects. In relation to depression, negative student-level educational experiences have been associated with increased symptoms, while evidence for school-level associations remains limited and often methodologically weak. We aimed to address this gap through a secondary analysis of longitudinal data from a trial involving 49 English secondary schools. Methods Student-reported educational experiences (school belonging, educational commitment, participation at school, relationships with teachers and expectation of university) as well as family affluence were measured at baseline (ages 12–13) and depressive symptoms were assessed at follow-up (ages 15–16). Associations were examined at both the individual student and aggregate school level of educational experiences. Results Forty-five schools were retained at endline and 4,601 students comprised our analytical sample. At the student level, greater school belonging (beta coefficient = −0.24; 95% confidence interval = −0.29, −0.19) and educational commitment (beta coefficient = −0.19; 95% confidence interval = −0.29, −0.08) were associated with lower risk of depressive symptoms in fully adjusted models. At the school level, only overall educational commitment was associated with reduced depressive symptoms in a partially but not fully adjusted model (beta coefficient = −1.02; 95% confidence interval = −1.86, −0.18). Discussion These findings suggest that educational experiences influence depressive symptoms primarily through individual-level mechanisms, for example involving students’ sense of belonging, engagement, participation and relationships) but the general level of educational commitment within a school may also play a meaningful role. (249 words).