Individual and school environment predictors of mental health and wellbeing across the primary to secondary school transition

Donaldson, Caitlyn, Hawkins, Jemma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1998-9547 and Moore, Graham ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6136-3978 2025. Individual and school environment predictors of mental health and wellbeing across the primary to secondary school transition. School Mental Health Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Background Transition from primary to secondary school is an important life event for young people that may have impacts on mental health. Objective and subjective measures of the school environment may be associated with mental health outcomes post-transition. Methods Pre-transition (year 6, age 10-11) survey data from young people in Wales, UK was linked to post-transition (year 7, age 11-12) survey data (n=506) and combined with an objective value-added measure of school meaningfulness created from administrative data. Multi-level models were run, adjusting for pre-transition mental health difficulties, to investigate the relationship between individual and school-level variables, including self-reported perceptions of school connectedness and school meaningfulness, and mental health difficulties and mental wellbeing outcomes post-transition. Results Pre-transition mental health difficulties were consistently significantly associated with post-transition mental health difficulties. Higher family affluence was significantly associated with higher mental wellbeing and lower difficulties. School connectedness items also showed evidence of significant association with mental health difficulties and wellbeing outcomes post-transition. School meaningfulness was only significantly associated with post-transition mental wellbeing. Conclusions Individual and school-level factors offer opportunities for targeting interventions to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing across the school transition period.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) Research Institutes & Centres > Centre For Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) Research Institutes & Centres > Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health (WCYPMH)
Publisher:	Springer
ISSN:	1866-2625
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 May 2025
Date of Acceptance:	23 May 2025
Last Modified:	12 Jun 2025 12:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178605

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