Disadvantaged school children are more likely to be lonely and sick
01.08.2023 14:24
In Germany, after the end of the pandemic, socially disadvantaged school children are doing significantly worse than their peers from well-off families. Half of boys and girls with low social status are lonely. Many people have more pain, depressive symptoms or sleep problems than their peers with high social status. More than a fifth of socially disadvantaged school children have even taken sleeping pills because of sleep problems. This is shown by the current prevention radar from DAK-Gesundheit for the 2021/2022 school year.
For the broad school study, the IFT-Nord in Kiel surveyed around 15,000 boys and girls in grades 5 to 10 in a total of 14 federal states and compared the results with previous years. As a consequence of the current study, DAK CEO Andreas Storm is calling for a targeted prevention offensive in the affected schools. The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs reiterates its call for basic child security – also to protect the health of adolescents.
Opportunities for good health are unfairly distributed
“We have known for years how important social background is for educational success. As an early warning system, our prevention radar now clearly shows that opportunities for good health are also unfairly distributed,” says DAK CEO Andreas Storm. “If it depends on the family background whether school children are lonelier, have more pain and depressive symptoms or sleep worse, then we have to act. We need a targeted prevention offensive for equal health opportunities.”
44 percent of respondents with low social status have emotional problems
According to the DAK Prevention Radar, one in three school children in grades 5 to 10 often feel alone and excluded and have the feeling that they have no friends. In the group with a low social status, even half are affected by loneliness. Socially disadvantaged schoolchildren also perform worse when it comes to physical complaints. 38 percent of them have one or more types of pain at least once a week, compared to 21 percent of well-off children. Headaches and back pain are particularly common among all school children surveyed, at 27 and 25 percent respectively. About a fifth (19 percent) report regular abdominal pain. A comparable picture emerges with regard to depressive symptoms: among those surveyed with low social status, 44 percent have emotional problems and are affected by a sad mood, lack of joy or loss of self-esteem. Among those with a high social status, the number is significantly lower at 26 percent.
The more unfavorable the social situation, the worse the state of health
“The past few years have presented adolescents with major challenges – especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Boys and girls from families belonging to a lower social class had a harder time coping with these challenges. The data from the prevention radar show: the more unfavorable the social situation, the worse the state of health. This becomes evident in times of crisis. We should therefore particularly support those adolescents who come from families that have few resources available in order to prevent disorders and illnesses from manifesting themselves in adolescence,” explains Professor Reiner Hanewinkel, head of studies at IFT-Nord in Kiel. “In order to achieve the goal of equal health opportunities, a broad prevention offensive is now urgently needed, with measures and strategies at a wide range of levels and good cooperation between many partners,” adds Andreas Storm.
The gap is getting bigger and bigger
Ekin Deligöz, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, comments: “The health of children and young people is fundamentally important – it shapes the path of life from the very beginning and thus also the development of our society. The 'Prevention Radar 2023' shows that many children and young people are generally doing well, but not all of them and the gap is becoming increasingly wider. This is alarming and shows: We need to secure prevention services such as mental health coaches because we urgently need them for socially disadvantaged children and young people in schools. We also need basic child security that protects against poverty and disadvantage and thus also promotes health.”
The introduction of mental health coaches should help
Last year, the Federal Ministries of Health and Families, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth set up an interministerial working group on “Health effects on children and young people due to Corona”. In their final report in February 2023, the ministries stated, among other things, that they would introduce mental health coaches in selected schools who would take preventative measures to strengthen the mental resilience of school children and other health aspects. “We urgently need a prevention offensive for equal health opportunities. The fact that mental health coaches will start working for the first time in the coming school year is a good start,” says DAK CEO Andreas Storm. “They must be used specifically where the need is particularly great and where there are a particularly large number of socially disadvantaged families in the school catchment area.”
Another result of the DAK prevention radar: More than a third (36 percent) of all school children have sleep problems at least once a week. About half of boys and girls from families with low social status sleep poorly. About a fifth (22 percent) of them have taken sleeping pills because of this. Excessive screen time plays a major role in the sleep problems of socially disadvantaged schoolchildren. The study shows that disadvantaged boys and girls spend significantly more time on screens than their better-off classmates. And long periods of time on cell phones, games consoles and laptops are clearly associated with more frequently occurring sleep problems, according to model calculations based on the survey results.