IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/125804.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The double disadvantage faced by adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds with mental health problems affects earnings up to mid-life

Author

Listed:
  • Evans-Lacko, Sara
  • Paulino, Font Gilabert
  • Knapp, Martin

Abstract

Early childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and mental health problems are both important determinants of adult social and economic experiences, but little is known about how they interact in this respect. We aimed to assess whether poor mental health in adolescence exacerbates labour market inequalities originating from low socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood. We use a birth cohort of individuals born in 1958 in England and follow their employment experiences and cumulative earnings up to age 55. We proxy low SES in childhood with father’s occupational class at the time the respondent was aged 11, and use caregiver (usually, parent) ratings of the Rutter inventory at age 16 to identify mental health problems in adolescence. We fit ordinary least squares (OLS) models to estimate the effect of growing up in a low-SES family and experiencing mental health problems (conduct or emotional problems) in adolescence on cumulative earnings (log-transformed). We use an interaction term to test whether the association between mental health problems (conduct and emotional separately) and earnings differed by socioeconomic group. Individuals who experienced conduct problems in adolescence had lower cumulative earnings and employment levels up to age of 55. Moreover, the association between mental health problems and cumulative earnings was higher among individuals who also experienced low SES in childhood. Families from a higher socioeconomic group may have more effective means to counteract the adverse impacts of adolescent mental health problems, likely due to broader access to resources, support systems and opportunities. This underscores the role of structural supports in addressing socioeconomic inequalities in mental health outcomes and their long-terms implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Evans-Lacko, Sara & Paulino, Font Gilabert & Knapp, Martin, 2024. "The double disadvantage faced by adolescents from low socioeconomic backgrounds with mental health problems affects earnings up to mid-life," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125804, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:125804
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/125804/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cardak, Buly A. & Johnston, David W. & Martin, Vance L., 2013. "Intergenerational earnings mobility: A new decomposition of investment and endowment effects," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 39-47.
    2. Currie, Janet & Stabile, Mark, 2006. "Child mental health and human capital accumulation: The case of ADHD," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1094-1118, November.
    3. Dale Dannefer, 2003. "Cumulative Advantage/Disadvantage and the Life Course: Cross-Fertilizing Age and Social Science Theory," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 58(6), pages 327-337.
    4. John Beddington & Cary L. Cooper & John Field & Usha Goswami & Felicia A. Huppert & Rachel Jenkins & Hannah S. Jones & Tom B. L. Kirkwood & Barbara J. Sahakian & Sandy M. Thomas, 2008. "The mental wealth of nations," Nature, Nature, vol. 455(7216), pages 1057-1060, October.
    5. Charlesworth, Anita & Anderson, Michael & Donaldson, Cam & Johnson, Paul & Knapp, Martin & McGuire, Alistair & McKee, Martin & Mossialos, Elias & Smith, Peter & Street, Andrew & Woods, Michael, 2021. "What is the right level of spending needed for health and care in the UK?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110806, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Francis Vergunst & Richard Tremblay & Daniel Nagin & Yann Algan & Elizabeth Beasley & Jungwee Park & Cedric Galera & Frank Vitaro & Sylvana Côté, 2019. "Association Between Childhood Behaviors and Adult Employment Earnings in Canada," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03947278, HAL.
    7. Heather Joshi & Alexander Bryson & David Wilkinson & Kelly Ward, 2021. "The gender gap in wages over the life course: Evidence from a British cohort born in 1958," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 397-415, January.
    8. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    9. Knapp, Martin & King, Derek & Healey, Andrew & Thomas, Cicely, 2011. "Economic outcomes in adulthood and their associations with antisocial conduct, attention deficit and anxiety problems in childhood," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 38200, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Knapp, Martin & Snell, Tom & Healey, Andrew & Guglani, Sacha & Evans-Lacko, Sara & Fernández, José-Luis & Meltzer, Howard & Ford, Tamsin, 2015. "How do child and adolescent mental health problems influence public sector costs? Interindividual variations in a nationally representative British sample," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60131, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Missinne, Sarah & Colman, Elien & Bracke, Piet, 2013. "Spousal influence on mammography screening: A life course perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 63-70.
    2. Nuarpear Lekfuangfu, 2016. "Childhood Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Later-Life Outcomes: A Hidden Consequence of the 1989 Typhoon Gay," PIER Discussion Papers 32., Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research, revised Jun 2016.
    3. Owen O'Donnell & Eddy Van Doorslaer & Tom Van Ourti, 2013. "Health and Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 13-170/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Fletcher, Jason M. & Lehrer, Steven F., 2009. "The Effect of Adolescent Health on Educational Outcomes: Causal Evidence using ‘Genetic Lotteries’ between Siblings," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-40, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 26 Jun 2009.
    5. Joshua Graff Zivin & Matthew Neidell, 2013. "Environment, Health, and Human Capital," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 689-730, September.
    6. Seth Freedman & Kelli Marquardt & Dario Salcedo & Kosali Simon & Coady Wing, 2023. "Societal Disruptions and Child Mental Health: Evidence from ADHD Diagnosis During the Covid-19 Pandemic," Working Paper Series WP 2023-04, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    7. Janet Currie, 2020. "Child health as human capital," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 452-463, April.
    8. Solomon, Keisha T. & Dasgupta, Kabir, 2022. "State mental health insurance parity laws and college educational outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Kong, Nancy & Phipps, Shelley & Watson, Barry, 2021. "Parental economic insecurity and child health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).
    10. Yanwen Long & Changli Jia & Xiaoxia Luo & Yufeng Sun & Wenjing Zuo & Yibo Wu & Yunchou Wu & Ayidana Kaierdebieke & Zhi Lin, 2022. "The Impact of Higher Education on Health Literacy: A Comparative Study between Urban and Rural China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, September.
    11. Weili Ding & Steven F. Lehrer & J. Niels Rosenquist & Janet Audrain-McGovern, 2006. "The Impact of Poor Health on Education: New Evidence Using Genetic Markers," NBER Working Papers 12304, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Avendano, M.; de Coulon, A.; Nafilyan, V.;, 2017. "Does more education always improve mental health? Evidence from a British compulsory schooling reform," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 17/10, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    13. 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.
    14. Nuarpear Lekfuangfu, 2016. "Childhood Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Later-Life Outcomes: A Hidden Consequence of the 1989 Typhoon Gay," PIER Discussion Papers 32, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    15. Sevim, Dilek & Baranov, Victoria & Bhalotra, Sonia & Maselko, Joanna & Biroli, Pietro, 2023. "Trajectories of Early Childhood Skill Development and Maternal Mental Health," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 674, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    16. Ding, Weili & Lehrer, Steven F. & Rosenquist, J.Niels & Audrain-McGovern, Janet, 2009. "The impact of poor health on academic performance: New evidence using genetic markers," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 578-597, May.
    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. Sevim, Dilek & Baranov, Victoria & Bhalotra, Sonia R. & Maselko, Joanna & Biroli, Pietro, 2023. "Socioemotional Skills in Early Childhood: Evidence from a Maternal Psychosocial Intervention," IZA Discussion Papers 15925, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Averett, Susan L. & Wang, Yang, 2015. "The Effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Children's Health, Quality of Home Environment, and Non-Cognitive Skills," IZA Discussion Papers 9173, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    adolescent; socioeconomic factors; mental health; earnings; longitudinal studies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    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:ehl:lserod:125804. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.