Abstract
Starting in 2004/2005, the German state Baden-Wurttemberg reduced academic track duration from nine to eight years, leaving cumulative instruction time mostly unchanged. I use this change in schooling policy to identify the effect of increased schooling intensity on students’ internalizing mental health problems and perceived stress. Using data on 2306 students from the Additional Study Baden-Wurttemberg of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), estimates show strong negative effects on internalizing mental health problems for girls and an increase in stress for both genders.
Funding statement: This work was supported by the Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences which is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) under the German Excellence Initiative (GSC1024).
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to two anonymous referees, as well as to the editors, for helpful insights and comments on an earlier draft of this paper. Furthermore, I would like to thank Silke Anger, Guido Heineck, Stefanie Herber, and Jana Jarecki, seminar participants at the University of Bamberg, the participants of the Third Lisbon Research Workshop on Economics, Statistics and Econometrics of Education, the Sixth International Workshop on Applied Economics of Education, the 29th Annual Conference of the European Society for Population Economics, and the Workshop Consequences of the G8 Reform for useful comments and fruitful discussions.
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Correction note
This article is part of the special issue “Empirical Health Economics” published in the Journal of Economics and Statistics. Access to further articles of this special issue can be obtained at https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jbnst.
Code and Datasets
The author(s) published code and data associated with this article in the ZBW Journal Data Archive, a storage platform for datasets. See: https://doi.org/10.15456/jbnst.2018302.100223.
Appendix
Description of variables.
| Variable | Description |
| Stress | Standardized index of perceived stress constructed from 15 items, |
| mean 0 and standard deviation 1 (for contained items see Table 7) | |
| Mental health problems | Standardized index of internalizing mental health problems |
| constructed from 15 items, mean 0 and standard deviation 1 | |
| (for contained items see Table 8) | |
| Reform (G8) | Dummy indicating whether student was affected by the reform |
| Female | Dummy indicating whether student is female |
| Age (years) | Student age in years |
| Age - median | Student age in months minus median age of respondents in |
| own cohort | |
| Repeated | Dummy indicating whether student ever repeated a grade |
| Migration background | Dummy indicating whether student has a migration background, |
| i. e. at least one parent was not born in Germany | |
| Books at home | Number of Books at home, categories: 0-100, 101-200, 201-500, more |
| than 500 books | |
| Sports | Dummy indicating whether student does sports on more than one day per week |
Perceived stress.
| How much do you agree with the following statements? | |
| 1 | I am tense when I get home from school. |
| 2 | Sometimes I have trouble falling asleep because problems from school are on my mind. |
| 3 | It happens that I react irritably when others start talking to me about school. |
| 4 | I feel that school is overwhelming me. |
| 5 | Even during my free time I think about troubles at school. |
| 6 | I consider the requirements at school in general as stressful. |
| 7 | After school I am often exhausted. |
| 8 | Thinking of school makes me feel uncomfortable. |
| 9 | Pressure at school is too high. |
| 10 | School is eating me up. |
| 11 | It is hard for me to conciliate school with other obligations. |
| 12 | School often makes me feel tired and exhausted. |
| 13 | It is easy for me to recover from school during my free time. (reversed) |
| 14 | I can relax well during my free time. (reversed) |
| 15 | Apart from school, I do not have time for anything else. |
| Response format: 1 = not at all true; 2 = hardly true; 3 = moderately true; 4 = exactly true | |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12. Translation by NEPS.
Symptoms of internalizing mental health problems.
| How often have you had the following problems in the last 6 weeks? | |
| 1 | Nervousness, inner anxiety |
| 2 | Headaches |
| 3 | Strong heart palpitations |
| 4 | Fear that it’s all getting too much |
| 5 | Difficulty concentrating |
| 6 | Sleep disturbances |
| 7 | Bad dreams |
| 8 | Excessive sweating |
| 9 | Vomiting |
| 10 | Easily irritable |
| 11 | Feelings of dizziness |
| 12 | Tiredness, fatigue |
| 13 | Incapable of relaxing |
| 14 | Severe forgetfulness, distraction |
| 15 | Angry at everything |
| 16 | Feeling of being worthless |
| 17 | Fear of going to school |
| 18 | Shakiness, weakness |
| 19 | Nausea |
| 20 | Loss of appetite |
| 21 | Backache |
| 22 | Sadness |
| 23 | Feeling that excessive demands are being made of me |
| 24 | Eating binges |
| 25 | Feeling of inner emptiness |
| 26 | Stomach ache |
| Response format: 1 = never; 2 = 1-2 times; 3 = 3-6 times; 4 = more than 6 times | |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12. Translation by NEPS.
Gender differences in (non-standardized) dependent variables.
| Mean | Equality of means | |||
| Male | Female | Difference | t-stat | |
| Pooled | ||||
| Stress (std) | –0.252 | 0.188 | –0.441 | –10.73*** |
| Mental health (std) | –0.337 | 0.252 | –0.589 | –14.62*** |
| Observations | 986 | 1320 | 2306 | |
| Control Group | ||||
| Stress (std) | –0.351 | 0.003 | –0.354 | –6.2*** |
| Mental health (std) | –0.338 | 0.178 | –0.516 | –9.03*** |
| Observations | 494 | 653 | 1147 | |
| Mean | Equality of means | |||
| Male | Female | Difference | t-stat | |
| Treatment Group | ||||
| Stress (std) | –0.153 | 0.370 | –0.524 | –8.91*** |
| Mental health (std) | –0.336 | 0.324 | –0.660 | –11.66*** |
| Observations | 492 | 667 | 1159 | |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12.
Regressions on stress and internalizing mental health problems.
| Stress | Mental health problems | |||||
| Pooled | Male | Female | Pooled | Male | Female | |
| Reform (G8) | 0.314*** | 0.214*** | 0.392*** | 0.111** | 0.010 | 0.186*** |
| (0.049) | (0.065) | (0.063) | (0.048) | (0.061) | (0.063) | |
| Age - median | 0.015*** | 0.026*** | 0.006 | 0.003 | 0.004 | 0.001 |
| (0.005) | (0.007) | (0.006) | (0.005) | (0.007) | (0.006) | |
| Repeated a grade | 0.167 | -0.054 | 0.365 | 0.334*** | 0.113 | 0.537*** |
| (0.127) | (0.168) | (0.220) | (0.123) | (0.150) | (0.172) | |
| Female | 0.424*** | 0.580*** | ||||
| (0.045) | (0.044) | |||||
| Sports | -0.234*** | -0.199** | -0.257*** | -0.128** | -0.161* | -0.110 |
| (0.051) | (0.087) | (0.057) | (0.049) | (0.082) | (0.068) | |
| Migration backgr. | 0.209*** | 0.242** | 0.191** | 0.241*** | 0.247*** | 0.241*** |
| (0.057) | (0.092) | (0.080) | (0.054) | (0.090) | (0.079) | |
| Books at home: | ||||||
| 0–100 books | 0.268*** | 0.294*** | 0.232*** | 0.123* | 0.177** | 0.068 |
| (0.055) | (0.079) | (0.085) | (0.064) | (0.085) | (0.090) | |
| 101–200 books | 0.073 | 0.095 | 0.055 | -0.067 | -0.034 | -0.101 |
| (0.053) | (0.072) | (0.067) | (0.062) | (0.072) | (0.083) | |
| 201–500 books | 0.009 | 0.057 | -0.026 | -0.037 | 0.045 | -0.100 |
| (0.046) | (0.056) | (0.072) | (0.052) | (0.059) | (0.073) | |
| Constant | -0.345*** | -0.349*** | 0.074 | -0.360*** | -0.311*** | 0.197** |
| (0.059) | (0.083) | (0.075) | (0.065) | (0.091) | (0.074) | |
| Observations | 2306 | 986 | 1320 | 2306 | 986 | 1320 |
| 0.114 | 0.0695 | 0.0788 | 0.114 | 0.0317 | 0.0384 | |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12. OLS regressions. The dependent variables are standardized to a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. Age - median = age in months - median(age of students in own cohort). Books at home: reference category: ’more than 500’. A two-sided test for equality of the reform effect for the male and female subsamples yields a p-value of 0.05 for stress and of 0.04 for internalizing mental health problems. Equality of the reform effect of males vs. females can therefore be rejected at the 5%-level.
Effect heterogeneity.
| Stress | Mental health problems | |||||
| Pooled | Male | Female | Pooled | Male | Female | |
| Age higher than median | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.278*** | 0.165** | 0.359*** | 0.056 | -0.036 | 0.121 |
| (0.054) | (0.074) | (0.075) | (0.055) | (0.073) | (0.076) | |
| Interaction | 0.075 | 0.096 | 0.072 | 0.113 | 0.090 | 0.141 |
| (0.062) | (0.095) | (0.093) | (0.068) | (0.101) | (0.093) | |
| Wald test p-valuea | 0.000*** | 0.003*** | 0.000*** | 0.009*** | 0.523 | 0.002*** |
| Math competence above medianb | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.373*** | 0.245** | 0.441*** | 0.151** | -0.054 | 0.248*** |
| (0.050) | (0.101) | (0.055) | (0.067) | (0.110) | (0.071) | |
| Interaction | -0.118 | -0.027 | -0.139 | -0.075 | 0.114 | -0.160 |
| (0.075) | (0.117) | (0.111) | (0.085) | (0.126) | (0.117) | |
| Wald test p-valuea | 0.001*** | 0.006*** | 0.009*** | 0.225 | 0.381 | 0.397 |
| More than 200 books at home (higher SES) | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.265*** | 0.169* | 0.352*** | 0.072 | -0.067 | 0.180* |
| (0.064) | (0.092) | (0.083) | (0.079) | (0.089) | (0.105) | |
| Interaction | 0.075 | 0.070 | 0.061 | 0.061 | 0.121 | 0.008 |
| (0.076) | (0.118) | (0.099) | (0.091) | (0.118) | (0.116) | |
| Wald test p-valuea | 0.000*** | 0.006*** | 0.000*** | 0.022** | 0.507 | 0.009*** |
| Students with migration background | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.341*** | 0.251*** | 0.415*** | 0.137*** | 0.048 | 0.208*** |
| (0.057) | (0.079) | (0.070) | (0.048) | (0.063) | (0.063) | |
| Interaction | -0.127 | -0.185 | -0.103 | -0.124 | -0.188 | -0.100 |
| (0.102) | (0.162) | (0.143) | (0.095) | (0.141) | (0.135) | |
| Wald test p-valuea | 0.016** | 0.607 | 0.019** | 0.890 | 0.297 | 0.424 |
| Observations | 2306 | 986 | 1320 | 2306 | 986 | 1320 |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12. OLS regressions. The dependent variables are standardized to a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. All models contain a constant and control additionally for age deviation from cohort median, previous grade repetition, sports participation, migration background, books at home, gender (only pooled models), and a dummy indicating whether the student’s mathematical competence is above the median in her cohort (only mathematical competence part). The interaction term displays the interaction of the reform with being older than the median student, with above median mathematical competence, with having more than 200 books at home or with having a migration background. aTest of the hypothesis
Robustness checks.
| Stress | Mental health problems | |||||
| Pooled | Male | Female | Pooled | Male | Female | |
| Panel A: Robustness checks using analysis sample | ||||||
| Control for relative age over both cohorts | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.526*** | 0.573*** | 0.474*** | 0.152** | 0.084 | 0.190* |
| (0.076) | (0.115) | (0.093) | (0.073) | (0.098) | (0.095) | |
| Omit sports participation from controls | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.317*** | 0.218*** | 0.395*** | 0.113** | 0.013 | 0.187*** |
| (0.049) | (0.064) | (0.065) | (0.048) | (0.060) | (0.063) | |
| No controls | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.298*** | 0.198*** | 0.368*** | 0.088* | 0.002 | 0.146** |
| (0.052) | (0.061) | (0.065) | (0.047) | (0.056) | (0.061) | |
| Separate standardization by gender | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.319*** | 0.226*** | 0.394*** | 0.110** | 0.011 | 0.183*** |
| (0.050) | (0.069) | (0.063) | (0.050) | (0.070) | (0.061) | |
| Using weights | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.272*** | 0.190** | 0.339*** | 0.088* | –0.003 | 0.154** |
| (0.053) | (0.074) | (0.068) | (0.052) | (0.066) | (0.072) | |
| Observations | 2306 | 986 | 1320 | 2306 | 986 | 1320 |
| Panel B: Robustness checks with additional sample restrictions | ||||||
| Exclude grade repeaters | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.316*** | 0.225*** | 0.388*** | 0.114** | 0.006 | 0.198*** |
| (0.051) | (0.068) | (0.065) | (0.049) | (0.063) | (0.062) | |
| Observations | 2192 | 932 | 1260 | 2192 | 932 | 1260 |
| Exclude old G8 | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.311*** | 0.207*** | 0.393*** | 0.106** | 0.002 | 0.183*** |
| (0.049) | (0.063) | (0.062) | (0.048) | (0.058) | (0.063) | |
| Observations | 2282 | 978 | 1304 | 2282 | 978 | 1304 |
| Panel C: Using wave 2010/11 as control and wave 2012/13 as treatment | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.436*** | 0.403*** | 0.464*** | 0.282*** | 0.254*** | 0.306*** |
| (0.049) | (0.050) | (0.067) | (0.045) | (0.043) | (0.064) | |
| Observations | 2419 | 1055 | 1364 | 2419 | 1055 | 1364 |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0, wave 2011/12 (panel A and B) and waves 2010/11 and 2012/13 (Panel C). OLS regressions. The dependent variables are standardized to a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. All models contain a constant and control additionally for age deviation from cohort median, previous grade repetition, sports participation, migration background, books at home and gender (only pooled models).
Different calculations for dependent variables.
| Stress | Mental health problems | |||||
| Pooled | Male | Female | Pooled | Male | Female | |
| Separate standardization by gendera | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.319*** | 0.226*** | 0.394*** | 0.110** | 0.011 | 0.183*** |
| (0.050) | (0.069) | (0.063) | (0.050) | (0.070) | (0.061) | |
| Observations | 2306 | 986 | 1320 | 2306 | 986 | 1320 |
| Allow for no missing valuesb | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.314*** | 0.198*** | 0.402*** | 0.122** | -0.006 | 0.213*** |
| (0.053) | (0.068) | (0.066) | (0.050) | (0.064) | (0.065) | |
| Observations | 2154 | 918 | 1236 | 2154 | 918 | 1236 |
| No restriction for missingsc | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.316*** | 0.217*** | 0.393*** | 0.111** | 0.013 | 0.182*** |
| (0.049) | (0.065) | (0.062) | (0.047) | (0.061) | (0.062) | |
| Observations | 2316 | 988 | 1328 | 2316 | 988 | 1328 |
| Count all occurrences of largest and second largest valued | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.302*** | 0.199*** | 0.383*** | 0.115** | 0.015 | 0.188*** |
| (0.050) | (0.067) | (0.064) | (0.046) | (0.059) | (0.061) | |
| Observations | 2322 | 992 | 1330 | 2322 | 992 | 1330 |
| Count all occurrences of largest valuee | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.258*** | 0.096 | 0.377*** | 0.094* | -0.029 | 0.184*** |
| (0.053) | (0.066) | (0.062) | (0.047) | (0.060) | (0.062) | |
| Observations | 2322 | 992 | 1330 | 2322 | 992 | 1330 |
| Using factor loadsf | ||||||
| Reform (G8) | 0.318*** | 0.216*** | 0.397*** | 0.097** | -0.049 | 0.205*** |
| (0.052) | (0.069) | (0.064) | (0.047) | (0.058) | (0.066) | |
| Observations | 2240 | 958 | 1282 | 2227 | 947 | 1280 |
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12. OLS regressions. The dependent variables are standardized to a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one. All models contain a constant and control additionally for age deviation from cohort median, previous grade repetition, sports participation, migration background, books at home, gender (only pooled models). a Since there are severe differences between male and female students in the outcomes, in addition to the normal standardization over the entire sample, the outcomes were standardized separately for males and females. bIn this specification, indexes for stress and mental health are only calculated if there is no missing value in any of the respective items. c In this specification, indexes for stress and mental health are calculated as long as there is at least one nonmissing value in among the respective items. d In this specification all occurrences of the highest and second highest answer category are counted. The number of occurrences is then standardized, in order to allow comparison of the results to the other specifications e This specification is similar to the previous specification, except that it only counts occurrences of the highest possible answer category f In this specification, before the standardization takes place, the items in each score are weighted by their predicted rotated factor loadings, which result from factor analysis.
Differences in variables between G9-students in wave 2010/11 and 2011/12.
| Mean | Equality of means | |||
| Wave 2010/11 | Wave 2011/12 | Difference | t-stat | |
| Stress score | 1.929 | 2.015 | -0.0859 | -3.851*** |
| Mental health problem score | 1.800 | 1.869 | -0.0693 | -3.227** |
| Female | 0.556 | 0.568 | -0.0122 | -0.596 |
| Age (years) | 18.47 | 18.40 | 0.0769 | 3.272** |
| Repeated a grade | 0.104 | 0.0853 | 0.0190 | 1.573 |
| Sports | 0.790 | 0.778 | 0.0121 | 0.711 |
| Migration backgr. | 0.235 | 0.222 | 0.0138 | 0.800 |
| 0-100 books at home % | 0.189 | 0.179 | 0.0102 | 0.636 |
| 101-200 books at home % | 0.163 | 0.162 | 0.000702 | 0.0462 |
| 201-500 books at home % | 0.316 | 0.311 | 0.00515 | 0.270 |
| 500 + books at home % | 0.328 | 0.346 | -0.0176 | -0.906 |
| Observations | 1198 | 1160 | ||
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2010/11 and 2011/12.
Differences in variables between G8-students in wave 2011/12 and 2012/13.
| Mean | Equality of means | |||
| Wave 2011/12 | Wave 2012/13 | Difference | t-stat | |
| Stress score | 2.193 | 2.201 | -0.008 | -0.317 |
| Mental health problem score | 1.920 | 1.972 | -0.052 | -2.259* |
| Female | 0.577 | 0.568 | 0.00926 | 0.453 |
| Age (years) | 17.33 | 17.45 | -0.118 | -5.499*** |
| Repeated a grade | 0.015 | 0.110 | -0.095 | -9.732*** |
| Sports | 0.763 | 0.736 | 0.0262 | 1.465 |
| Migration backgr. | 0.209 | 0.240 | -0.031 | -1.775 |
| 0-100 books at home % | 0.191 | 0.179 | 0.012 | 0.740 |
| 101-200 books at home % | 0.172 | 0.151 | 0.021 | 1.393 |
| 201-500 books at home % | 0.307 | 0.311 | -0.004 | -0.199 |
| 500 + books at home % | 0.328 | 0.358 | -0.030 | -1.534 |
| Observations | 1206 | 1208 | ||
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2011/12 and 2012/13.
Differences in variables between G9-students in wave 2010/11 and G8-students in wave 2012/13.
| Mean | Equality of means | |||
| Wave 2010/11 | Wave 2012/13 | Difference | t-stat | |
| Stress score | 1.929 | 2.201 | -0.272 | -11.84*** |
| Mental health problem score | 1.800 | 1.972 | -0.172 | -7.875*** |
| Female | 0.556 | 0.568 | -0.0121 | -0.594 |
| Mean | Equality of means | |||
| Wave 2010/11 | Wave 2012/13 | Difference | t-stat | |
| Age (years) | 18.47 | 17.45 | 1.021 | 39.30*** |
| Repeated a grade | 0.104 | 0.110 | -0.00535 | -0.422 |
| Sports | 0.790 | 0.736 | 0.0533 | 3.057** |
| Migration backgr. | 0.235 | 0.240 | -0.00440 | -0.252 |
| 0-100 books at home % | 0.189 | 0.179 | 0.0101 | 0.632 |
| 101-200 books at home % | 0.163 | 0.151 | 0.0123 | 0.821 |
| 201-500 books at home % | 0.316 | 0.311 | 0.00514 | 0.270 |
| 500 + books at home % | 0.328 | 0.358 | -0.0299 | -1.537 |
| Observations | 1198 | 1176 | ||
Notes: NEPS BW D_3-0-0 wave 2010/11 and 2012/13.
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