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The main aim of this dissertation is to gain more insight into the interplay of two processes that may contribute to the emergence of socioeconomic health inequalities in adolescence and young adulthood: social causation and health-related selection. Social causation emphasizes the role of the socioeconomic background of the family and of differences within the educational setting that underlie the development of health inequalities. Health-related selection refers to processes whereby health problems influence adolescents’ and young adults’ educational trajectories (direct health-related selection), or whereby individual differences already present in childhood (e.g., in genetics or cognitive skills, such as effortful control and IQ) predict later educational attainment as well as health characteristics or behaviours (indirect health-related selection). In addition, this dissertation examined whether associations between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and adolescent health behaviours differ between countries with low and high levels of social mobility. Country-level social mobility, like other social and cultural characteristics at the societal level, could influence the strength of the mechanisms that contribute to the development of health inequalities. The results highlight the importance of both social causation and health-related selection in the development of socioeconomic health inequalities in adolescence and young adulthood. Direct health-related selection was mainly found regarding attention problems, and relatedly ADHD symptoms, which consistently predicted decreases in education over the whole course of adolescence and young adulthood. In addition, we found that associations between ADHD symptoms and lower education were not mediated by key features of adolescents’ social context (i.e., family functioning, social support by teachers, and social support by classmates). Furthermore, we did not find differences in these associations depending on the

Both social causation and health-related selection may influence educational gradients in alcohol use in adolescence and young adulthood. The social causation theory implies that the social environment (e.g. at school) influences adolescents’ drinking behaviour. Conversely, the health-related selection hypothesis posits that alcohol use (along other health-related characteristics) predicts lower educational attainment. From past studies it is unclear which of these mechanisms predominates, as drinking may be both a cause and consequence of low educational attainment. Furthermore, educational gradients in alcohol use may reflect the impact of ‘third variables’ already present in childhood, such as parental socioeconomic status (SES), effortful control, and IQ. We investigated social causation and health-related selection in the development of educational gradients in alcohol use from adolescence to young adulthood in a selective educational system. We used data from a Dutch population-based cohort (TRAILS Study; n = 2,229), including measurements of educational level and drinking at ages around 14, 16, 19, 22, and 26 years (waves 2 to 6). First, we evaluated the directionality in longitudinal associations between education and drinking with cross-lagged panel models, with and without adjusting for pre-existing individual differences using fixed effects. Second, we assessed the role of childhood characteristics around age 11 (wave 1), i.e. IQ, effortful control, and parental SES, both as confounders in these associations, and as predictors of educational level and drinking around age 14 (wave 2). In fixed effects models, lower education around age 14 predicted increases in drinking around 16. From age 19 onward, we found a tendency towards opposite associations, with higher education predicting increases in alcohol use. Alcohol use was not associated with subsequent changes in education. Childhood characteristics strongly predicted education around age 14 and, to a le

Children of immigrants may have higher neurodevelopmental risks than those of non-immigrant populations. Yet, some evidence suggests that this group may receive late diagnosis, and therefore miss beneficial early interventions. Clinicians may misattribute symptoms of disorders to other social, behavioral or language problems. Likewise, there might be cultural differences in parents' likelihood of perceiving or reporting first developmental concerns to clinicians. Population-based standardized screening may play an important role in addressing ethnic inequalities in the age at diagnosis, although further research focusing on cross-cultural use is necessary. Once children are diagnosed, clinicians may rely on culturally sensitive procedures (translation services, cultural mediators) to increase the accessibility of interventions and improve adherence among immigrant families. In this brief review, we provide an overview about what is currently known about the epidemiology and risk factors of neurodevelopmental disorders, paying special attention to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in children of immigrants and suggest the necessity of population-based screening and culturally sensitive care.