The Association Between Education and Mental Health : A Study on Elderly Swedish Citizens

Sammanfattning: According to theory, higher educated individuals should be associated with better mental health, and this thesis aimed to explore the effect of different educational levels on mental health for Swedish citizens. This was done by the means of using individual data retrieved from the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe, and using OLS models and ordered logit models to estimate the effect. No significant direct effect of education on mental health was found, but other significant influencing factors on mental health were income, age, gender, marital status, number of children, and self-perceived health. Mental health and age in the study population followed a non-monotonic relationship; mental health improved as you age up to age 73, and then decreases.