[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hka/wpaper/2018-033.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Understanding the mechanisms through which adverse childhood experiences affect lifetime economic outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Stefanie Schurer

    (The University of Sydney)

  • Kristian Trajkovski

    (The University of Sydney)

Abstract
Over the past two decades, researchers have shown a growing interest in the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) – children's confrontation with maltreatment and household dysfunction – in shaping lifetime opportunities. However, this is the first study to quantify the economic penalties of ACEs and identify the mechanisms which produce the relationship. We source data from the National Child Development Study to construct an ACE index based on prospective childhood information and estimate an earnings penalty of 7.3 percent for each additional ACE, a 53.1 percent higher probability of being welfare dependent, and a 34 percent higher probability of poverty at age 55, controlling for important background factors measured in childhood. The results are driven by parental neglect, a component of the ACE index based on teacher assessments. Observed differences in later-life earnings between children with and without neglect exposure can be fully explained by observable differences in human capital accumulated by age 33. The productivity loss in an economy due to parental failures to nurture and protect their children is likely to be high. Our findings contribute to a wider discussion on the multidimensionality and expanding definitions of childhood poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefanie Schurer & Kristian Trajkovski, 2018. "Understanding the mechanisms through which adverse childhood experiences affect lifetime economic outcomes," Working Papers 2018-033, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-033
    Note: ECI
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Schurer_Trajkovski_2018_adverse-child-experience-lifetime-outcomes.pdf
    File Function: First version, February 12, 2018
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James J. Heckman & Stefano Mosso, 2014. "The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 689-733, August.
    2. Gordon B. Dahl & Lance Lochner, 2012. "The Impact of Family Income on Child Achievement: Evidence from the Earned Income Tax Credit," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(5), pages 1927-1956, August.
    3. Gabriella Conti & James J. Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto, 2016. "The Effects of Two Influential Early Childhood Interventions on Health and Healthy Behaviour," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(596), pages 28-65, October.
    4. James J. Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto, 2015. "Econometric Mediation Analyses: Identifying the Sources of Treatment Effects from Experimentally Estimated Production Technologies with Unmeasured and Mismeasured Inputs," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1-2), pages 6-31, February.
    5. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "The More the Merrier? The Effect of Family Size and Birth Order on Children's Education," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(2), pages 669-700.
    6. James J. Heckman, 2011. "The American Family in Black and White: A Post-Racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality," NBER Working Papers 16841, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_economic_status_paper is not listed on IDEAS
    8. repec:iae:iaewps:wp2016n3 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Nicolás Salamanca & Anna Zhu, 2019. "Parenting style as an investment in human development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 1315-1352, October.
    10. Janet Currie, 2009. "Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise: Socioeconomic Status, Poor Health in Childhood, and Human Capital Development," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 87-122, March.
    11. Fletcher Jason M. & Schurer Stefanie, 2017. "Origins of Adulthood Personality: The Role of Adverse Childhood Experiences," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 1-22, April.
    12. Fortin, Nicole & Lemieux, Thomas & Firpo, Sergio, 2011. "Decomposition Methods in Economics," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 1, pages 1-102, Elsevier.
    13. Greg Duncan & Katherine Magnuson & Ariel Kalil & Kathleen Ziol-Guest, 2012. "The Importance of Early Childhood Poverty," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(1), pages 87-98, August.
    14. Johnston, David W. & Schurer, Stefanie & Shields, Michael A., 2013. "Exploring the intergenerational persistence of mental health: Evidence from three generations," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1077-1089.
    15. Randall K. Q. Akee & William E. Copeland & Gordon Keeler & Adrian Angold & E. Jane Costello, 2010. "Parents' Incomes and Children's Outcomes: A Quasi-experiment Using Transfer Payments from Casino Profits," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(1), pages 86-115, January.
    16. repec:pri:cheawb:case_paxson_economic_status_paper.pdf is not listed on IDEAS
    17. McCarthy, Molly M. & Taylor, Penny & Norman, Rosana E. & Pezzullo, Lynne & Tucci, Joe & Goddard, Chris, 2016. "The lifetime economic and social costs of child maltreatment in Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 217-226.
    18. Surtees, Paul G. & Wainwright, Nicholas W.J., 2007. "The shackles of misfortune: Social adversity assessment and representation in a chronic-disease epidemiological setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 95-111, January.
    19. Slade, Eric P. & Wissow, Lawrence S., 2007. "The influence of childhood maltreatment on adolescents' academic performance," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 604-614, October.
    20. Johnson Rucker C & Schoeni Robert F, 2011. "The Influence of Early-Life Events on Human Capital, Health Status, and Labor Market Outcomes Over the Life Course," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 1-57, September.
    21. James Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto & Peter Savelyev, 2013. "Understanding the Mechanisms through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2052-2086, October.
    22. Case, Anne & Fertig, Angela & Paxson, Christina, 2005. "The lasting impact of childhood health and circumstance," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 365-389, March.
    23. Tahir Mahmood & Xiaohua Yu & Stephan Klasen, 2019. "Do the Poor Really Feel Poor? Comparing Objective Poverty with Subjective Poverty in Pakistan," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 543-580, April.
    24. Kaiser, Till & Li, Jianghong & Pollmann-Schult, Matthias & Song, Anne Y., 2017. "Poverty and child behavioral problems: the mediating role of parenting and parental well-being," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 14(9), pages 1-1.
    25. Metzler, Marilyn & Merrick, Melissa T. & Klevens, Joanne & Ports, Katie A. & Ford, Derek C., 2017. "Adverse childhood experiences and life opportunities: Shifting the narrative," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 141-149.
    26. Janet Currie & Erdal Tekin, 2012. "Understanding the Cycle: Childhood Maltreatment and Future Crime," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(2), pages 509-549.
    27. Gaitz, Jason & Schurer, Stefanie, 2017. "Bonus Skills: Examining the Effect of an Unconditional Cash Transfer on Child Human Capital Formation," IZA Discussion Papers 10525, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    28. Peter Adamson, 2012. "Measuring Child Poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world's rich countries," Papers inreca660, Innocenti Report Card.
    29. Angus Deaton & Alan Heston, 2010. "Understanding PPPs and PPP-Based National Accounts," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 1-35, October.
    30. Fletcher, Jason M., 2009. "Childhood mistreatment and adolescent and young adult depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 799-806, March.
    31. Anne Case & Darren Lubotsky & Christina Paxson, 2002. "Economic Status and Health in Childhood: The Origins of the Gradient," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(5), pages 1308-1334, December.
    32. Bernard M. S. Praag & Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell, 2008. "A Multidimensional Approach to Subjective Poverty," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Nanak Kakwani & Jacques Silber (ed.), Quantitative Approaches to Multidimensional Poverty Measurement, chapter 8, pages 135-154, Palgrave Macmillan.
    33. Jo Blanden & Kirstine Hansen & Stephen Machin, 2010. "The Economic Cost of Growing Up Poor: Estimating the GDP Loss Associated with Child Poverty," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 31(3), pages 289-311, September.
    34. Peter Whiteford & Willem Adema, 2007. "What Works Best in Reducing Child Poverty: A Benefit or Work Strategy?," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 51, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Herbert, Laura & Comeau, Jinette & Smith, Carrie & Smith-Carrier, Tracy & Saxby, Christopher & Botelho, Natashia, 2023. "Child maltreatment and adult economic outcomes: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    2. Viinikainen, Jutta & Bryson, Alex & Böckerman, Petri & Elovainio, Marko & Hutri-Kähönen, Nina & Juonala, Markus & Lehtimäki, Terho & Pahkala, Katja & Rovio, Suvi & Pulkki-Råback, Laura & Raitakari, Ol, 2020. "Do childhood infections affect labour market outcomes in adulthood and, if so, how?," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    3. Gabriella Conti & Elena Pizzo & Stephen Morris & Mariya Melnychuk, 2021. "The economic costs of child maltreatment in UK," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(12), pages 3087-3105, December.
    4. Scott D. Easton & Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher, 2024. "Adverse Childhood Experiences and Long-term Economic Well-being: Understanding Mechanisms to Explain Group Differences in Net Worth," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1066, Boston College Department of Economics.
    5. Sara N. Naicker & Marilyn N. Ahun & Sahba Besharati & Shane A. Norris & Massimiliano Orri & Linda M. Richter, 2022. "The Long-Term Health and Human Capital Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Birth to Thirty Cohort: Single, Cumulative, and Clustered Adversity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Cynthia L. Harter & John F. R. Harter, 2022. "The Link Between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Financial Security in Adulthood," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 832-842, December.
    7. Atkins, Rose & Turner, Alex James & Chandola, Tarani & Sutton, Matt, 2020. "Going beyond the mean in examining relationships of adolescent non-cognitive skills with health-related quality of life and biomarkers in later-life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    8. William, Jananie & Loong, Bronwyn & Hanna, Dana & Parkinson, Bonny & Loxton, Deborah, 2022. "Lifetime health costs of intimate partner violence: A prospective longitudinal cohort study with linked data for out-of-hospital and pharmaceutical costs," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. French, Eric Baird & O’Dea, Cormac & MacCuish, Jamie, 2021. "The Intergenerational Elasticity of Earnings: Exploring the Mechanisms," CEPR Discussion Papers 15975, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Mari, Gabriele, 2023. "Less for more? Cuts to child benefits, family adjustments, and long-run child outcomes in larger families," SocArXiv e3n82, Center for Open Science.
    3. Almond, Douglas & Currie, Janet, 2011. "Human Capital Development before Age Five," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 15, pages 1315-1486, Elsevier.
    4. Li, Han & Li, Jiangyi & Lu, Yi & Xie, Huihua, 2023. "Do housing regulations affect child development? Evidence and mechanisms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    5. Uta Bolt & Eric French & Jamie Hentall-MacCuish & Cormac O'Dea, 2021. "The intergenerational elasticity of earnings: exploring the mechanisms," IFS Working Papers W21/07, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    6. Sergi Sánchez-Coll, 2023. "Born this way: the effect of an unexpected child benefit at birth on longer-term educational outcomes," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 14(1), pages 105-141, March.
    7. Avner Seror, 2019. "Human Development, Social Interactions, and Identity Formation," AMSE Working Papers 1924, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    8. Cassidy, Michael T., 2020. "A Closer Look: Proximity Boosts Homeless Student Performance in New York City," IZA Discussion Papers 13558, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Lindsey Macmillan & Emma Tominey, 2023. "Parental inputs and socio-economic gaps in early child development," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1513-1543, July.
    10. Matthias Doepke & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2019. "The Economics of Parenting," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 11(1), pages 55-84, August.
    11. Alex Proshin, 2020. "Impact of Child Subsidies on Child Health, Well-being and Parental Investment in Human Capital: Evidence from Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey 2011-2017," PSE Working Papers halshs-02652268, HAL.
    12. Breitkopf, Laura & Chowdhury, Shyamal K. & Priyam, Shambhavi & Schildberg-Hörisch, Hannah & Sutter, Matthias, 2020. "Do economic preferences of children predict behavior?," DICE Discussion Papers 342, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    13. Armin Falk & Fabian Kosse & Pia Pinger & Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch & Thomas Deckers, 2021. "Socioeconomic Status and Inequalities in Children’s IQ and Economic Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(9), pages 2504-2545.
    14. Nicole Black & Johannes S. Kunz, 2019. "The Intergenerational Effects of Language Proficiency on Child Health Outcomes," Monash Economics Working Papers 05-19, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    15. Siflinger, Bettina & van den Berg, Gerard, 2016. "The Effects of a Universal Child Care Reform on Child Health – Evidence from Sweden," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145765, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Lordan, Grace & Mcguire, Alistair, 2019. "Widening the high school curriculum to include soft skill training: impacts on health, behaviour, emotional wellbeing and occupational aspirations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101234, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. Dawid Gondek & Ke Ning & George B Ploubidis & Bilal Nasim & Alissa Goodman, 2018. "The impact of health on economic and social outcomes in the United Kingdom: A scoping literature review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-21, December.
    18. Johnson Rucker C., 2012. "Health Dynamics and the Evolution of Health Inequality over the Life Course: The Importance of Neighborhood and Family Background," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(3), pages 1-69, January.
    19. Gabriella Conti, 2013. "The Developmental Origins of Health Inequality," Research on Economic Inequality, in: Health and Inequality, volume 21, pages 285-309, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    20. Cristina Borra & Ana Costa-Ramon & Libertad González & Almudena Sevilla-Sanz, 2021. "The Causal Effect of an Income Shock on Children’s Human Capital," Working Papers 1272, Barcelona School of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    childhood poverty; adverse childhood experiences; economic outcomes; welfare dependence; human capital;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I32 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hka:wpaper:2018-033. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jennifer Pachon (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mfichus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.