Socioeconomic Background and Use of Kela’s Rehabilitative Mental Health Services Among Secondary and Tertiary Education Students
Abstract
We studied how socioeconomic background (parents’ educational level, employment situation and childhood family’s income class) is related to use of mental health related rehabilitative psychotherapy and vocational rehabilitation arranged as education, provided by Finland’s Social Insurance Institution (Kela) during studies. In addition, we explored these relationships when familial background and educational factors were standardized.
Research population included students in secondary and tertiary education born between 1989 and 1991. Data on population, education, rehabilitation and disability retirement was extracted from the Statistics Finland, the Finnish National Agency for Education and Kela. Methods included crosstabulation and logistic regression. Statistical significances were observed by calculating 95 percent confidence intervals.
Participation in vocational rehabilitation arranged as education and rehabilitative psychotherapy was strongly associated with students’ socioeconomic background. Vocational rehabilitation was more commonly used by male students in secondary education, the majority coming from lower socioeconomic background. When the relationship between socioeconomic background and rehabilitation, standardized by familial background and educational factors, was examined, participation in rehabilitation was more common among students coming from high-income backgrounds, having higher educated parents or whose parents were outside the workforce. Vocational rehabilitation was rarely used in tertiary education.
Use of rehabilitative psychotherapy was more common among students from higher socioeconomic background, the majority of participants being female and students in tertiary education. Use of rehabilitative psychotherapy was higher among students whose family belonged to the highest income quartile and female students whose parents were outside the workforce. Students whose parents had a degree from tertiary education were more likely to participate in psychotherapy than students whose parents had secondary degree. When other socioeconomic factors were taken into account, parents’ higher education was associated with participation in rehabilitation psychotherapy only among female secondary school students. In addition, family’s high income-level was no more associated with participation in rehabilitation psychotherapy among female students in tertiary education.
The results show that use of vocational rehabilitation and rehabilitative psychotherapy are associated with students’ socioeconomical background. In future, it is important to study in more detail the individual and systemic factors explaining the differences observed, as well as to identify ways to address the socio-economic differences shown in the study.
Authors
Maari Parkkinen, Hanna Rinne, Johanna Korkeamäki, Minna Parkkila, Liisa Vaalasranta, Erja Poutiainen
Additional Information
- Peer-Reviewed: yes.
- Open Access: no.
- Cite as: Parkkinen, M., Rinne, H., Korkeamäki, J., Parkkila, M., Vaalasranta, L., & Poutiainen, E. (2022). Sosioekonomisen perhetaustan yhteys Kelan mielenterveysperusteiseen kuntoutukseen osallistumiseen toisen ja korkea-asteen opiskelijoilla. Kuntoutus, 45(3), 20-37. https://doi.org/10.37451/kuntoutus.122239
