Op-ed: Long-term homeschoolers enjoy ‘most favorable levels of mental health,’ study finds

One of the most frequent criticisms leveled against homeschooling involves questions over isolation and a lack of socialization – issues often associated with mental health and well-being.

However, we may need to start asking the opposite question. If longtime homeschoolers enjoy some of the best mental health levels in modern society, shouldn’t we focus on what they’re doing right?

“On many of the indicators, long-term homeschoolers appeared to have the most favorable levels of mental health, compared to all other respondents,” admits a recent Cardus Educational Survey (CES) report.

This stunning acknowledgment comes after data was taken in 2011, 2014, 2018 and 2023 on a “nationally representative sample of (U.S.) adults aged 24 to 39” – hardly a once-off statistical anomaly. 

A closer look suggests homeschooling can boost engagement in four key areas – psychological perspectives, faith-based lifestyles, civic service, and family formation – which, in turn, can produce better mental health. 

Psychological perspectives 

Researchers organized respondents into short-term (1-2 years), medium-term (3-7 years) and long-term (8 years or more) homeschoolers and controlled “for a range of demographic characteristics.” 

“Compared to the other respondent groups, long-term homeschoolers exhibited the highest levels of optimism, gratitude, and life satisfaction,” Albert Cheng and Angela Watson wrote in their report. 

“Long-term homeschoolers were also the least likely to ‘feel helpless dealing with life’s problems’ and to report symptoms associated with depression and anxiety.” 

However, the findings differed according to the number of years homeschooled. Short-term and medium-term homeschoolers “responded similarly to respondents who were never homeschooled” regarding mental health, according to researchers. 

“About one out of three respondents in these three groups agreed that they often ‘feel helpless in dealing with the problems of life.’ However, only one out of five long-term homeschoolers felt the same.” 

An interesting side note involved respondents’ employment outcomes and educational attainments. 

All homeschooled adults – short-term, medium-term and long-term – had a lower likelihood of being employed full time and enjoying an above-median household income, compared to their non-homeschooled counterparts. 

Even within that generalization, researchers noted nuances: “Bachelor’s and graduate degree attainment rates were similar between short-term homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers. But medium- and long-term homeschoolers were more likely than short-term and non-homeschoolers to have ended their education with a high school diploma or an associate’s degree.” 

What factors could explain these trends? Researchers raised some interesting speculations, including an invitation for respondents to rank their personal values involving money. 

The results were statistically significant. Only 19% of long-term homeschoolers ranked money as a “very important personal value.” 

Compare this to 29% of short-term homeschoolers, 28% of medium-term homeschoolers – and a whopping 34% of those who had never been homeschooled. 

“In other words, long-term homeschoolers may value other things in life more than money, which might partially explain their lower educational attainment and income levels,” researchers concluded. “However, long-term homeschoolers also placed more value on hard work, which might be a partial explanation for why their likelihood of employment was similar to that of more highly educated short-term homeschoolers.” 

Faith-based lifestyles 

The survey also explored respondents’ religious beliefs and experiences, finding all homeschooled adults – short-term, medium-term and long-term – more likely to profess a belief in God or a higher power than non-homeschoolers. 

Again, the amount of time spent homeschooling mattered: “The proportion of respondents who believed in God or a higher power increased with the number of years spent in the homeschool sector.” 

Other questions involved belief in an afterlife and experiencing God’s presence. 

Long-term homeschoolers again carried highest marks with this. Sixty percent reported feeling God’s presence over various timeframes – “once a week or so,” “a few times a week” or “every day” – almost double the rate of non-homeschoolers (31%). 

When asked to rank religion as a personal value, non-homeschoolers ranked lowest at 21%. Short-term homeschoolers were next (37%), but “over half of medium- and long-term homeschoolers” considered religion very important, according to researchers. 

“Similarly, medium- and long-term homeschoolers were more likely to agree that it is important for parents to teach their children about religion. Seventy-three percent of long-term homeschoolers agreed with that statement, as did 68 percent of medium-term homeschoolers. Meanwhile, 60 percent of short-term homeschoolers agreed, as did 45 percent of non-homeschoolers.” 

Civic service 

Now we move to one of my favorite parts of the study: civic engagement. 

“A common critique of homeschooling has been that isolating students prevents them from practicing democratic norms and developing dispositions that motivate them to engage with the broader community and fellow citizens in adulthood,” researchers note – perhaps sarcastically, given the data collected. 

As before, long-term homeschoolers beat out all other groups in civic engagement – illustrated in the likelihood of volunteering and charitable donations over the past year. 

“Long-term homeschoolers … were most likely to have engaged in charitable giving and to volunteer, and quite likely to have volunteered at least monthly,” researchers explained. “The higher likelihood of charitable giving among long-term homeschoolers was also consistent with the lower degree of importance they placed on money as a personal value.” 

Overall, homeschoolers volunteered “at least as much as, if not more than, non-homeschooled respondents,” according to the study. 

Researchers noted several caveats and nuances to this area, as short-term and medium-term homeschoolers differed from long-term ones. 

For example, only 23% of medium-term homeschoolers reported having done any unpaid volunteer work over the past 12 months, compared to much higher rates for short-term (36%) and long-term (45%) homeschoolers. 

However, let’s not bash these medium-term respondents too quickly. When asking those who reported volunteering how often they did so, medium-term homeschoolers led all groups at a whopping 53% who reported volunteering at least monthly. 

Furthermore, 54% of this group reported holding a leadership position in their volunteer organizations. Perhaps many of its members had experienced or were experiencing a season of burnout from too much community service, not too little. 

Family formation 

What did the family life of homeschooled adults look like, compared to other respondents? 

Researchers discovered long-term homeschoolers “more likely to be married, had the lowest divorce rate, and had more children, on average,” than any other respondent group. 

When asked to rank the importance of having children, long-term homeschoolers placed highest with 36% considering it “very important.” 

Meanwhile, only 29% of non-homeschoolers thought it very important – similar to short-term homeschoolers (28%) and medium-term homeschoolers (26%). 

“Long-term homeschoolers were more likely than other respondents to have had children, though the likelihood of having children for short-term homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers was not much lower,” researchers noted. 

Additionally, this group tended to have “a larger number of children” with an average of 1.23 children, compared to the averages of non-homeschoolers (0.84), short-term homeschoolers (0.75) and medium-term homeschoolers (0.61). 

‘Many distinctions’ within homeschooling should be recognized 

The study is quick to point out how “associations between outcomes and amount of time someone was homeschooled should not be interpreted as causal.” 

In other words, we shouldn’t leap to conclude every long-term homeschooler will enjoy better mental health than if they hadn’t been homeschooled. 

The survey also contains important nuances based on the amount of time being homeschooled – with outcomes varying significantly among short-term, medium-term and long-term homeschoolers. 

“Policy proposals aimed at addressing access to homeschooling and improving the practice need to take into account the many distinctions within the larger homeschooling population that were uncovered in this report,” researchers concluded. “Policy considerations for short-term homeschoolers may be different from those for long-term homeschoolers.” 

Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of studying actual data on homeschooling instead of the default fearmongering from too many legacy media outlets. 

As homeschooling has existed in its modern-day form for more than four decades now, this study demonstrates a promising step in that direction – one both homeschool critics and cheerleaders alike should applaud.