{
  "abstract": "Children of parents with psychopathology generally perform less well in school than their peers. Parental symptoms might not, however, account for their lower achievement, as other familial factors might contribute. To examine the role of parental symptoms, we analyse data from 9,000 families in the Norwegian Mother, Father, and Child Study (MoBa). Parents reported their symptoms of anxiety, depression, ADHD, eating disorders, and alcohol use disorder during pregnancy and during their child’s childhood. Children in 5th grade (aged 10) completed nationally-standardised tests of mathematics, reading comprehension, and English (as an additional language). Comparing children who are cousins (children-of-siblings design), we controlled for unmeasured factors shared among family members that confound the relationship between parental mental health and children’s academic achievement. We found small associations between greater parental symptoms and lower scores in reading and mathematics (− 0.060 ≤ β ≤ −0.013). However, these associations were no longer significant when comparing cousins whose parents differ in mental health. Results suggest that parental symptoms do not exert a direct, clinically meaningful effect on children’s academic achievement. Although non-significant, associations with parental symptoms measured close to the child’s academic test are less attenuated than those measured during pregnancy. Notably, comparison between the overall MoBa sample and the children-of-siblings samples suggests ascertainment differences that hinder strong generalisations. Our findings underscore the importance of quasi-experimental family designs in identifying modifiable targets in intergenerational health and education research. Supporting parental mental health is crucial but its direct effect on children’s achievement may be smaller than often thought.\n\nSupplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "PROMENTA Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway",
    "Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands",
    "Research Institute LEARN!, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands",
    "Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands",
    "Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, Bristol, UK",
    "MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK",
    "Centre for Fertility and Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway",
    "PsychGen Center, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway",
    "Department of Educational Science, University of South-Eastern Norway, Notodden, Norway",
    "Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway",
    "Centre for Research on Equality in Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway",
    "Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 9,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Perline A. Demange",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7061-8354"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1,
        4,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Michel G. Nivard",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2015-1888"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        6,
        7
      ],
      "name": "Fartein A. Torvik",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3984-5978"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Espen M. Eilertsen",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3444-4251"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Rosa Cheesman",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6543-0402"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        8
      ],
      "name": "Magnus Nordmo",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1977-1038"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9
      ],
      "name": "Torkild Lyngstad",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7830-9305"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        7,
        10
      ],
      "name": "Eivind Ystrom",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4390-6171"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2,
        3,
        11
      ],
      "name": "Elsje van Bergen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5860-5745"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3anj29fgkd74y.bib",
  "cited_by": 1,
  "doi": "10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13710637/",
  "id": "3anj29fgkd74y",
  "issns": [
    "1018-8827",
    "1435-165X"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Research"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3203|Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W4409257568",
  "pdf_url": "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9.pdf",
  "pmcid": "PMC13710637",
  "pmid": "42340381",
  "published": "2026-06-24",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3anj29fgkd74y.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:34Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13710637",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-026-03100-9"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:3203|Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development",
      "subfield": "psychiatry"
    }
  ],
  "title": "No evidence of parental mental health influencing children’s academic achievement: a within-family study",
  "title_text": "No evidence of parental mental health influencing children’s academic achievement: a within-family study",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-31T12:21:34Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3anj29fgkd74y",
  "venue": "European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry",
  "versions": []
}