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Causal Mechanisms of Relative Age Effects on Adolescent Risky Behaviours

Luca Fumarco,
Francesco Principe

We investigate the mechanisms by which a student’s age relative to classmates (i.e., relative age) influences risky health behaviors among European adolescents. Using a two-stage least squares approach, we show that relatively young students are more prone to engage in risky behaviors. These results hold after controlling for absolute age, country fixed effects, and birth season effects. In the second part of the paper, we conduct two sets of analyses on possible mechanisms. First, causal mediation analyses reveal that students’ perceived academic performance is the primary mediator. Second, additional analyses suggest that perceptions of substance risks and peer usage prevalence may also play a significant role.

Keywords
Relative age; age effects; enrolment cutoffs
Education level
K-12 Education
Topics
Student Well-Being and Mental Health
Tags
Student supports
Download 11/2024
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/d21r-ve74
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Fumarco, Luca, and Francesco Principe. (). Causal Mechanisms of Relative Age Effects on Adolescent Risky Behaviours. (EdWorkingPaper: -1088). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/d21r-ve74

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