Understanding differences in emotional problems according to ethnicity using the Born in Bradford Cohort

A growing number of children and young people in England are reporting mental health problems – in particular symptoms of anxiety and depression. Our analysis of two data sources (the Mental Health of Children and Young People and Understanding Society) indicate that the change is only seen in young people from White backgrounds and not in South Asian or Black African/Caribbean young people. The reason that there is a decline in the mental health of young White people, but not other minoritised ethnic groups is not obvious. It may be that White young people are becoming increasingly more likely to report mental health symptoms whilst other groups are not. This would mean the trends are not reflecting genuine increases in mental health problems but rather a bias of how we measure mental health. Another potential reason is that whatever is causing the decline in mental health of white young people is not present in young people from some minoritised ethnic groups or is negated in some way by social or cultural factors.

This project will try to unpick these explanations using the Born in Bradford Cohort. We shall understand whether the survey responses given by young people from White British and South Asian backgrounds have similar properties (called ‘measurement invariance’ analysis). Then, we shall investigate whether the consequences of self-reported mental health problems are similar between White British and South Asian young people. Finally, we shall consider whether known determinants of mental health are similarly distributed across groups.