Effects of student human rights ordinances on mental health among middle and high school students in South Korea: a difference-in-differences analysis

TL;DR

This study examined if student human rights laws in South Korea improved mental health among middle and high school students.

Contribution

It is the first study to evaluate the impact of human rights legislation on adolescent mental health using a difference-in-differences approach.

Findings

SHROs had no consistently significant effects on mental health outcomes except for a slight increase in suicide ideation.

Some outcomes like suicide attempts and perceived stress showed mixed or decreasing trends.

Uncertainty in effects increased over time, possibly due to violations of parallel trends.

Abstract

To actively protect and enhance students’ human rights, student human rights ordinances (SHROs) have been enforced in seven provinces in South Korea at different times since 2010. Although human rights are closely linked to mental health, there has been no research on the effectiveness of human rights legislation on adolescent mental health. This study evaluated the effects of SHROs on the mental health of middle and high school students.

Repeated cross-sectional data were used, including 1,148,257 respondents from the Korea Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey between 2006 and 2023. Probabilities of perceived stress, sleep insufficiency, depressive mood, suicide ideation, and suicide attempt in treated provinces were estimated through a difference-in-differences approach that accounts for treatment effect heterogeneity across groups over time.

SHROs had no consistently significant effects on any mental health outcomes, except for slightly increased suicide ideation in total students (0.7%, 95% confidence interval 0.3% to 1.1%). Suicide attempts in total and male students and perceived stress and sleep insufficiency in female students tended to decrease, while other mental health outcomes tended to increase. Uncertainty in the effect estimates of SHROs increased for all mental health outcomes with possible violations of parallel trends, rendering originally significant effects insignificant.

SHROs failed to improve mental health of middle and high school students in treated provinces, possibly due to the absence of enforcement mechanisms. Further research is needed on the effectiveness of and effect mechanisms for legal measures to improve human rights on adolescent mental health.

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