504 European Journal of Public Health

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The European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 28, No. 3, 504–509
ß The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1093/eurpub/cky025 Advance Access published on 24 March 2018
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Association between adolescents’ academic aspirations
and expectations and mental health: a one-year
follow-up study
Melody C. Almroth1, Krisztina D. László1, Kyriaki Kosidou1,2, Maria R. Galanti1,2

1 Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

2 Centre for Epidemiology and Community Medicine, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden

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Correspondence: Melody Almroth, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Tomtebodavägen 18A,
17177 Stockholm, Sweden, Tel: +46 (0) 72 585 59 06, Fax: +46-8-31 11 01, e-mail: melody.almroth@ki.se

Background: Mental health problems among youth have increased in Sweden in recent decades, as has compe-
tition in higher education and the labour market. It is unknown whether the increasing emphasis put on educa-
tional achievement might negatively affect adolescents’ mental health. We aimed to investigate the relationship
between adolescents’ academic aspirations and expectations and the risk of mental health problems. Methods:
We studied 3343 Swedish 7th grade adolescents (age 13), who participated in the first two waves of the KUPOL
longitudinal study; participants answered a questionnaire encompassing the five-item Future Aspirations and
Goals (FG) subscale of the Student Engagement Instrument, two questions about their own academic aspirations
and expectations and two mental health instruments: the Center for Epidemiological studies for Children (CES-DC)
(=.90) and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) (=.78). The association between aspirations and
expectations at baseline and mental health at follow-up was analysed using logistic regression models adjusting
for baseline mental health, socio-demographic and family factors. Results: The FG subscale was inversely and
linearly associated with the odds of high CES-DC score [adjusted OR (odds ratio) 0.71, 95% CI (confidence
interval): 0.59–0.86], total Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire score (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.49–0.71), and its
internalizing (OR 0.70, 95% CI 0.59–0.84) and externalizing problems scores (OR 0.58, 95% CI 0.48–0.71).
Conclusions: Adolescents with high individual academic aspirations have less mental health problems at 1-year
follow-up. Future studies should investigate whether interventions aimed at increasing aspirations and
engagement in school may prevent mental health problems in adolescence.
.........................................................................................................

Introduction pathways. High aspirations nurture strong engagement with school

ental health problems are the largest contributor to morbidity
Mamong adolescents and young adults globally,1 and have
increased among adolescents in many high-income countries during
recent decades, especially internalizing problems among girls.2 In
Sweden this increase has been particularly steep.3 Early adolescence
(age 10–14) is a phase of life marked not only by an increase in the
rate of mental health problems,4 but also by an increase in perceived
school pressure5 paired with a decreased interest in school.6 It is an
important time when young people develop decision making skills
and begin making plans about their futures.7
During the last decades Sweden has faced several controversial
changes to the academic system with lasting effects today. The
most important policy changes concern the shift of the responsibility
for the school system from the state to the municipal level, and the
introduction and spread of state funded but privately run ‘free
schools’, and an increase in students’ responsibility for their own
education.8 These changes are thought to have increased competi-
tion both between schools and students.9
Acceptance into higher education and the labour market have
both become more competitive in Sweden.10 An increasing
number of jobs require a university degree,11 and educational
achievement is considered the most important means for young
people to improve their opportunities for labour market participa-
tion and life circumstances.12 The increasing importance of
education for future prospects may influence aspirations regarding
academic achievement starting at a young age.
Both high and low academic aspirations may have an impact on
young people’s mental health through different conceivable
in some cases, which is associated with psychological processes that
promote autonomy and positive functioning,13 and ultimately has a
positive impact on mental health. Furthermore, low aspirations may
be related to academic futility and disengagement in school, which
may influence mental health negatively. On the other hand, high
aspirations have been found to be associated with stress,14 maladap-
tive perfectionism15 and even depression and suicide ideation.16
Reverse causation is also possible (i.e. poor mental health may
influence an individual’s aspirations). Alternatively, the relationship
may be bi-directional in that aspirations and poor mental health
reinforce each other over time.
Academic aspirations refer to how far a person would like to go in
their education, while expectations refer to how far a person believes
he/she will go in education.17 While the concepts are similar, and
sometimes used interchangeably, some authors have suggested that
they are representative of slightly different processes and may not
always be aligned.17 The majority of literature on the topic of
academic aspirations or expectations focuses on achievement rather
than mental health outcomes. One US study found that unmet edu-
cational expectations did not predict depression later in life.18
However, this study was initiated in the 1970s and as mentioned
previously, trends in mental health and higher education have
changed since. To the best of our knowledge, no longitudinal
studies in Europe have explored the relationship between students’
own academic aspirations and mental health problems.
We investigated whether adolescents’ own academic aspirations
are associated with different dimensions of poor mental health, and
whether aspirations and expectations relate differently to mental
health, in a large longitudinal study of Swedish adolescents.
 Association between adolescents’ academic aspirations and expectations and mental health
Methods
Study population
This study is based on the KUPOL cohort study, a complete descrip-
tion of which has previously been published,19 and will be
summarized here.
Five hundred and forty-one schools were contacted in 2013 from
8 regions of central Sweden. Of these, 101 (62 public and 39 private)
participated in the study. Students in 7th grade (age 13) were
considered eligible except those with severe learning disabilities or
poor comprehension of the Swedish language.
Baseline data were collected at two time-points, i.e. in the 2013–14
and the 2014–15 academic years, resulting in two subsequent cohorts
of 7th grade students. Follow-up data were collected in the following
academic year for each sub-cohort. In total 3343 students answered
both baseline and follow-up questionnaires, making this the
analytical sample for this study.
Compared to the corresponding Swedish average, schools in our
sample were more likely to be private schools, to have lower rates of
teachers with a university degree and to have lower rates of students
whose parents were born outside the country.19
The KUPOL study was approved by the Stockholm Ethics Review
Board (reference numbers: 2012/1904-31/1 and 2016/1280-32).
Measures
Data were collected through questionnaires given to the students
and their parents or guardians at baseline and at one year follow-up.
Predictors
Future aspirations and goals were measured at baseline using the
‘Future aspirations and Goals’ (FG) five-item subscale of the Student
Engagement Instrument (SEI).13,20 The SEI measures aspects of
cognitive and psychological engagement in school and has shown
satisfactory internal validity in multiple contexts.13,20 The five items
of the FG subscale measure aspirations and perceived importance for
continued education, the value put on education and hopefulness
about the future. Response alternatives are scored on a 5-point Likert
scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’, and the total
score is calculated as the mean of the five questions.21 High internal
consistency, and correlation with academic outcomes in the expected
directions, has previously been found for the FG subscale:15 its
Cronbach alpha in our study was .79.
In addition to using the FG subscale as a continuous measure, we
categorized the upper and lower quartiles of the FG score to inves-
tigate the separate effects of very high and very low scores.
Students also answered two questions about specific academic
expectations and aspirations at baseline which were adapted from
the Positive Youth Development 4-H study.22 These two questions
ask how far in their education participants would (1) like to and (2)
believe they will go, respectively. Response alternatives were ‘I don’t
know’, ‘vocational high school’, ‘high school theoretical track’ and
‘university’. We combined the high school tracks into one category.
High school (upper secondary school after the age of 16) is not
mandatory in Sweden; therefore, students can choose whether or
not they want to continue their education after compulsory
school, and if so, which track they would like to focus on.
The number of participants with a mismatch between aspirations
and expectations was too limited to allow investigation of the
discrepancies between these two measures; therefore, these specific
expectations and aspirations questions were analysed separately in
order to investigate whether they related to mental health differently.
Outcomes
Mental health was measured at baseline and at 1-year follow-up with
the Swedish versions of the Centre for Epidemiological Studies
505
Depression scale for Children (CES-DC) and the Strengths and
Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Both scales have been extensively
validated in Sweden23,24 and internationally.25,26
The CES-DC is a 20-item scale suitable for screening for
depressive disorder in young people aged 6–17.23 Each question
refers to how often the child experienced a certain symptom in
the past week. The four possible response alternatives range from
‘not at all’ to ‘a lot’. The recommended cut-off point of the CES-DC
for screening for depressive disorder among adolescents of a score of
at least 30 out of 60 points was used to create a binary outcome.23
The scale’s Cronbach alpha was .90.
The SDQ is a 25-item scale useful in screening for conduct
disorder, hyperactivity, depression and anxiety disorders.26 The
scale consists of five subscales representing different areas of psycho-
logical strengths and difficulties, labelled as: emotional problems,
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conduct problems, hyperactivity, peer problems and pro-social
behaviour. However, it is recommended in studies of community
samples to combine emotional problems and peer problems to
derive an internalizing problems subscale, and conduct problems
and hyperactivity to derive an externalizing problems subscale.27
Together, the internalizing and externalizing subscales make up
the total difficulties scale. The response alternatives are ‘not true’,
‘somewhat true’ and ‘certainly true’. We categorized these scales
according to their recommended cut-off points indicating a high
or very high score:27,28 these cut-offs are 18 out of 40 for the total
difficulties scale,27 9 out of 20 for the internalizing and 11 out of 20
for the externalizing problems subscales.26 The Cronbach’s alphas
for the SDQ scales were .78 for the total difficulties scale, .71 for the
internalizing problems scale and .73 for the externalizing problems
scale.
Covariates
Information on the child’s living arrangements were obtained from
the child’s baseline questionnaire and classified as ‘living’ vs. ‘not
living with both parents’, Parents’ birth country [categorized as ‘at
least one parent born in Sweden’ (yes/no)], employment [‘both
parents employed’ (yes/no)] and education [‘at least one parent
with university education’ (yes/no)] were obtained from the
parents’ reports at baseline. For the baseline SDQ scales, we used
the recommended four-band categorization, and applied the same
distribution to derive categories for the CES-DC.27
Statistical analysis
We first explored the cluster effect of schools through multi-level
modelling with random intercept. The model test statistic (2 log
likelihood) was virtually identical to that obtained through ordinary
regression, indicating a negligible effect of student clustering within
schools. Therefore, we carried out the analysis ignoring the
clustering of the observations.
We analysed the distribution of the baseline covariates according
to SDQ total difficulties and CES-DC scores at 1-year follow-up
using Chi-square tests. As the mental health variables were not
normally distributed and we could not normalize them, we
investigated the associations between different measures of
academic expectations and aspirations and mental health problems
using logistic regression.
Since we hypothesized that both very high and very low aspir-
ations could increase the risk of mental health problems, we first
investigated the association between the categorical FG variable and
the four measures of mental ill-health. Tests of linearity suggested a
linear relationship between the FG subscale and the measures of
mental health, thus, in all further analyses we included the FG
scale as both a continuous and categorical variable. We fitted
models for measures of baseline academic aspirations and expect-
ations and each measure of mental health at follow up, both
unadjusted (model 1), and adjusted for baseline mental health, sex
506 European Journal of Public Health

of the child, child’s living arrangement, parents’ employment,
parents’ education and parents’ country of birth (model 2). The
reason for considering these factors as confounders is that they
may be associated with both aspirations and expectations and have
been shown to be associated with poor mental health,29 but they are
not in the causal pathway between exposure and outcome. We
hypothesized that poor mental health at baseline, sex (because
there are indicators that girls may have higher academic aspirations
than boys30) low parental socioeconomic status (measured by
education and employment) having immigrant parents (which
could render some difficulties in navigating the Swedish school
system) may hamper development of high academic aspirations.
Approximately 11% of study participants in the analytical sample
had missing information on at least one of the covariates. As a sen-
sitivity analysis, we built logistic regression models to compare dif-
living with both of their parents, having parents with only basic or
secondary education, at least one unemployed parent and a higher
CES-DC or SDQ score at baseline compared to those with scores
within the normal range (table 1).
In multivariate models, the continuous FG scale was linearly and
inversely associated with the odds of high CES-DC [odds ratio (OR)
0.71, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.59–0.86], SDQ total difficulties
(OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.49–0.71), SDQ internalizing (OR 0.79, 95% CI
0.59–0.84) and SDQ externalizing (OR 0.58 95% CI 0.48–0.71)
scores. Results tended to be similar when the categorical FG scale
was used, albeit precision was lower (tables 2 and 3).
The questions addressing aspirations and expectations as separate
constructs were consistent with the FG subscale, but showed weaker
associations, and were both similarly related to the mental health
measures (tables 2 and 3).

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ferences in results from multiple imputed datasets and after pairwise
deletion. This analysis indicated that associations and standard
errors differed only marginally between these two approaches;
therefore, results are presented without imputation.
Effect modification by gender and baseline mental health was
investigated using stratified analysis and by formal tests of
interaction.
Analyses were conducted using SAS Enterprise Guide 7.1.
Results
Participants with high scores on the CES-DC and SDQ total
difficulties scales at follow-up were more likely to be girls, not
We did not find evidence of effect modification by sex or by
baseline mental health (data not shown).
Discussion
In this short-term longitudinal analysis of a large population-based
sample, adolescents with high academic aspirations were less likely
to develop mental health problems at 1-year follow-up, while the
reverse was true for those with low aspirations. This pattern tended
to be consistent for measures of both academic aspirations and ex-
pectations, and was similar across genders and levels of mental
health status at baseline.

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population at baseline according to CES-DC and SDQ scores at follow up

N (%) CES-DC SDQ

30 (N = 401) <30 (N = 2911) Pa 18 (N = 362) <18 (N = 2955) Pa

N (%) N (%) N (%) N (%)

Sex
Boys 1599 (47.83) 61 (15.21) 1524 (52.35) 121 (33.43) 1462 (49.48)
Girls 1744 (52.17) 340 (84.79) 1387 (47.65) <.001 241 (66.57) 1493 (50.52) <.001
Living arrangement
Lives with both parents 3125 (93.56) 361 (90.02) 2736 (94.09) 318 (87.85) 2784 (94.31)
Lives with only one or neither parent 215 (6.44) 40 (9.98) 172 (5.91) .002 44 (12.15) 168 (5.69) <.001
Missing 3
Parents’ education
One or both went to university 2234 (69.10) 251 (64.19) 1964 (69.82) 194 (54.96) 2021 (70.81)
Neither went to university 999 (30.90) 140 (35.81) 849 (30.18) .024 159 (45.04) 833 (29.19) <.001
Missing 110
Parents’ employment
Both employed 2722 (85.52) 313 (81.72) 2387 (86.05) 276 (80.23) 2425 (86.18)
One or both unemployed 461 (14.48) 70 (18.28) 387 (13.95) .017 68 (19.77) 389 (13.82) .003
Missing 160
Parents’ birth country
At least one parent born in Sweden 2970 (91.84) 360 (93.02) 2585 (91.73) 320 (91.69) 2629 (91.96)
Neither parent born in Sweden 264 (8.16) 27 (6.98) 233 (8.27) .383 29 (8.31) 230 (8.04) .864
Missing 109
Baseline CES-DC
Average 2642 (80.21) 147 (37.22) 2475 (86.24) 161 (45.10) 2462 (84.55)
Raised 351 (10.66) 96 (24.30) 248 (8.64) 71 (19.89) 276 (9.48)
High 146 (4.43) 59 (14.94) 86 (3.00) 52 (14.57) 93 (3.19)
Very high 155 (4.71) 93 (23.54) 61 (2.13) <.001 73 (20.45) 81 (2.78) <.001
Missing 49
Baseline SDQ
Average 2728 (82.52) 204 (51.78) 2496 (86.64) 141 (39.50) 2563 (87.68)
Raised 308 (9.32) 78 (19.80) 228 (7.91) 77 (21.57) 230 (7.87)
High 109 (3.30) 39 (9.90) 69 (2.40) 44 (12.32) 65 (2.22)
Very high 161 (4.87) 73 (18.53) 88 (3.05) <.001 95 (26.61) 65 (2.22) <.001
Missing 37

SDQ, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; CES-DC, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale for Children.
a: P-values correspond to Chi-square test comparing the distribution of the independent variables according to the SDQ and CES-DC
categories.
 Association between adolescents’ academic aspirations and expectations and mental health 507

Table 2 Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for depressive symptoms at follow-up, according to measures of baseline academic
aspirations or expectations

CES-DC score 30 Events at follow-up/N OR (95% CI)

Model 1a Model 2b

FG subscale 0.54 (0.47–0.62) 0.71 (0.59–0.86)

FG categorical Low 158/809 1.85 (1.46–2.34) 1.49 (1.12–2.00)
Medium 167/1437 1 1
High 72/1022 0.58 (0.43–0.77) 0.73 (0.52–1.00)
Aspirations Don’t know 157/1328 1.07 (0.84–1.35) 1.16 (0.87–1.54)
High school only 83/539 1.45 (1.09–1.93) 1.53 (1.07–2.17)
University 152/1362 1 1
Expectations Don’t know 200/1535 1.43 (1.11–1.84) 1.33 (0.99–1.79)
High school only 88/636 1.53 (1.13–2.08) 1.32 (0.92–1.90)
University 100/1054 1 1

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OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; CES–DC, Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children; FG, Future Aspirations and
Goals subscale.
a: Model 1 is unadjusted.
b: Model 2 is adjusted for baseline mental health, sex of the child, living arrangement, parental education, parental employment, and
parents’ birth country.

Table 3 Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for mental health problems at follow-up measured by the Strength and Difficulties
Questionnaire according to measures of baseline academic aspirations or expectations

SDQ total difficulties 18 Events at follow-up/N OR (95% CI)

Model 1a Model 2b

FG subscale 0.41 (0.35–0.48) 0.59 (0.49–0.71)

FG categorical Low 161/806 2.30 (1.80–2.94) 1.54 (1.15–2.07)
Medium 141/1439 1 1
High 55/1028 0.52 (0.38–0.72) 0.68 (0.48–0.97)
Aspirations Don’t know 159/1327 1.44 (1.12–1.86) 1.40 (1.03–1.89)
High school only 74/538 1.69 (1.24–2.30) 1.33 (0.91–1.94)
University 118/1369 1 1
Expectations Don’t know 188/1534 1.68 (1.28–2.21) 1.32 (0.96–1.82)
High school only 80/638 1.73 (1.25–2.39) 1.16 (0.79–1.70)
University 81/1057 1 1
Internalizing problems score 9
FG subscale 0.58 (0.51–0.67) 0.70 (0.59–0.84)
FG categorical Low 177/808 1.67 (1.34–2.09) 1.48 (1.13–1.94)
Medium 207/1441 1 1
High 103/1028 0.66 (0.52–0.85) 0.93 (0.70–1.24)
Aspirations Don’t know 199/1328 1.04 (0.84–1.29) 1.07 (0.82–1.38)
High school only 84/539 1.09 (0.83–1.44) 1.14 (0.82–1.59)
University 198/1370 1 1
Expectations Don’t know 250/1536 1.32 (1.05–1.65) 1.22 (0.93–1.59)
High school only 93/638 1.16 (0.87–1.54) 1.00 (0.71–1.40)
University 136/1058 1 1
Externalizing problems score 11
FG subscale 0.40 (0.34–0.47) 0.58 (0.48–0.71)
FG categorical Low 139/806 2.95 (2.24–3.89) 1.93 (1.39–2.69)
Medium 95/1440 1 1
High 41/1028 0.59 (0.40–0.86) 0.65 (0.43–0.99)
Aspirations Don’t know 119/1328 1.47 (1.10–1.96) 1.32 (0.93–1.86)
High school only 63/538 1.98 (1.41–2.79) 1.34 (0.88–2.05)
University 86/1369 1 1
Expectations Don’t know 146/1535 1.78 (1.30–2.43) 1.42 (0.98–2.04)
High school only 60/638 1.76 (1.21–2.55) 1.10 (0.71–1.71)
University 59/1057 1 1

OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SDQ, Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire; FG, Future Aspirations and Goals subscale.
a: Model 1 is unadjusted.
b: Model 2 is adjusted for baseline mental health, sex of the child, living arrangement, parental education, parental employment, and
parents’ birth country.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the rela-
tionship between academic aspirations and mental health in a
European context. Our findings corroborate those of earlier
studies suggesting that unattained expectations were not associated
with an increased risk of depression later in life among American
adolescents,18 or of studies reporting positive associations of school
engagement31–33 and intrinsic motivation34 with life satisfaction33
and positive mental health outcomes: these latter suggest that high
academic aspirations may be part of a wider constellation of positive
attitudes towards future life goals.
In contrast, several other studies have found that emotional and
behavioural problems were higher among those whose aspirations
508 European Journal of Public Health
exceeded their expectations.17,35 Similarly, several studies, including
some in the Swedish context, have found academic demands and
school pressure to be related to negative mental health outcomes.36
It has previously been reported that Swedish adolescents perceive
school demands as a large source of stress.37 Furthermore, early
adolescence has been found to be a time when academic demands
increase but school motivation tends to decrease; the increase in
perceived school related pressure between ages 11 and 15 is particu-
larly steep in Sweden.5 The discrepancy between the earlier results
concerning the link between school demands and mental ill-health
and our own suggests that nurturing high academic aspirations is
not necessarily related to academic stress, at least not in our Swedish
sample. Perceived pressure and demand from school may be repre-
sentative of external demand or extrinsic motivation. Individual as-
pirations, especially when measured by the FG scale which measures
not only the desired educational outcomes, but also the value put on
school are more related to intrinsic motivation. It may be that
developing intrinsic motivation can help young people cope with
external academic demand.
Sweden has traditionally been charactarized by its strong welfare
state. All education, including university, is free of charge. Nearly
90% obtain an upper secondary degree, though this is not
compulsary.38 All students are also entitled to a monthly stipend
and a low-interest loan while studying at the university level.38
This may thus contribute to minimizing the gap between desired
and the projected achievements, an idea supported by the low
number of children with a mismatch between aspirations and ex-
pectations in our study.
Though Sweden continues to have a relatively egalitarian school
system compared to countries where tuition fees are required for
private schools, changes to school policies since the 1990s have been
criticized for creating greater inequalities between schools and
between students.39 The last decades have also seen a shift towards
the student centred approach to learning, where the responsibility of
education has shifted from the schools or teachers to the individual,
and teachers are seen as facilitators of learning rather than leaders.40
This may mean that there has been an increase in the importance of
students being able to internalize educational goals independently.
Those who have adapted to this approach, possibly due to better
resources and support such as higher socio-economic status and
parental support, are likely to fare better, not only academically,
but also in regard to mental health.
Although the possibility of a detrimental effect of high academic
aspirations on mental health was not supported in our data, it is
possible that this was due to the short follow-up or to the young age
of the individuals. If there is a link between high aspirations and
mental distress, it may require a longer time for these outcomes to
manifest. At age 16 in Sweden students must decide their next steps
in life, but at age 13 these decisions may seem far away, and concepts
of concrete future planning are still somewhat abstract.
Strengths of this study include the large sample size, and the
prospective–cohort design. The employment of several measures of
future academic representations and of mental health was also a
strength, allowing an exploration of the consistency of patterns of
associations. The study also had some limitations. The study sample
resulted from a strong selection, with an under-representation of
parents born outside Sweden and of low-educated parents.19
Therefore, the academic aspirations and the mental health profile
of this adolescent population may not reflect those of the general
population. The internal validity of the results, however, would not
be affected by this selection, unless the direction of the association
between children’s academic aspirations and mental health would
differ according to socio-economic group. Residual confounding
(for instance, due to mental health problems occurring earlier in
life or among parents) could not be ruled out. Furthermore, the
nature of this association is very complex and we had limited
possibilities to disentangle psychosocial, social and educational
mechanisms involved in these associations because we lacked
measures of several potentially relevant factors such as self-esteem,
academic grades, cognitive function and general optimism.
We conclude that high academic aspirations among young ado-
lescents are associated with a decreased likelihood of developing
mental health problems. On the other hand, the finding that low
aspirations predicted the onset of mental health problems deserves
attention for school-based prevention of mental distress among ado-
lescents. Future studies are needed to investigate whether interven-
tions aimed at increasing aspirations and expectations and
engagement in school may positively affect mental health.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the participating schools, students and
families, and the administrative KUPOL staff, who make our
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research possible.
Funding
The KUPOL study is financially supported by a research grant
[nr 259-2012-48] which includes resources from the Swedish
Research Council Formas, The Swedish Research Council for
Health, Working Life and Welfare, and The Swedish Research
Council.
Conflicts of interest: None declared.
Key points
 This study investigated the relationship between own
academic aspirations and expectations and different
measures of mental health among 3343 Swedish adolescents
over a 1-year period.
 To our knowledge, no studies in a European context have
investigated the link between academic aspirations and
mental health.
 High academic aspirations were associated with a decreased
likelihood of developing both internalizing and externalizing
mental health problems, even when considering baseline
mental health, socio-demographic and family factors. Both
aspirations and expectations were similarly related to the
measures of mental health.
 The results indicate that nurturing high aspirations for
individual achievement may be beneficial for young
peoples’ mental health.
 Future research should focus on interventions aimed at
increasing academic engagement and aspirations.
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