Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studied 111 infants from 109 families who qualified as high risk by their socio-economic status; 57 were randomly assigned a full-time place at an educational childcare centre from infancy until the age of five, and the rest were an untreated control group.
When researchers followed up the children as 21-year-olds they found that 26 per cent of those who went through the early education programme displayed depressive symptoms in early adulthood tests, compared with 37 per cent in the control group.
The report said, 'Evidence indicating that good early childhood experiences can make a positive difference in the mental health of individuals born into poverty underscores the importance of investing in high-quality early childhood experiences.'
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