The mental health dividend of secondary education for Ghanaian women: Evidence from the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey

Across sub-Saharan Africa, widening access to and completion of secondary education – especially for women – has become a central development priority. More schooling is associated with improved psychological wellbeing, but whether completing secondary school in particular is linked to better mental health among women in sub-Saharan Africa is not well understood. Using four waves of the Ghana Socioeconomic Panel Survey (2009/10–2022/23), we estimate the relationship between lower- and upper-secondary credentials and women’s Kessler-10 (K10) distress scores, over and above a linear relationship with years of education. We find that an upper-secondary credential is associated with lower distress net of years of education: about 1.19 K10 points, or a 7.8-percentage-point lower probability of being at risk (K10 ≥ 20). This association is not concentrated among the tertiary-educated in that group. A lower-secondary credential is also associated with a 4.3-percentage-point lower probability of being at risk, net of years of education. The credential gradient is attenuated, but remains, after adjustment for observed economic security, household circumstances, physical health and care burden; economic security produces the largest attenuation.The panel allows us to track the same women between waves. Among women not at risk at one interview, secondary credentials are associated with a lower probability of being at risk at the next; among women already at risk, there is little evidence of a credential gradient in recovery. However, educational attainment is not randomly assigned and the current-circumstance measures are observed contemporaneously with distress, so the estimates are conditional associations and the sequential adjustment is an accounting exercise rather than a causal mediation analysis. The findings nevertheless point to psychological wellbeing as a potentially important non-market return associated with secondary education.