School Tracking and Mental Health

Abstract

To understand how the type of education affects long-term mental health, we examine the effects of a comprehensive school reform on mental health–related hospitalizations and deaths. The reform postponed the tracking of students into vocational and academic schools from age 11 to age 16, thus affecting the set of peers and the curriculum to which these students were exposed. The reform was implemented gradually across Finnish municipalities between 1972 and 1977. We use difference-in-differences variation and administrative data. Our overall results show no discernible effects on mental health–related hospitalizations or deaths, but heterogeneity analysis shows an adverse effect on hospitalizations due to depression for females from highly educated families.