The Long-Term Health and Human Capital Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Birth to Thirty Cohort: Single, Cumulative, and Clustered Adversity

Sara N. Naicker, Marilyn N. Ahun, Sahba Besharati, Shane A. Norris, Massimiliano Orri and Linda M. Richter
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Sara N. Naicker: DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa
Marilyn N. Ahun: Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Sahba Besharati: Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa
Shane A. Norris: DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa
Massimiliano Orri: McGill Group for Suicide Studies, Department of Psychiatry, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 0G4, Canada
Linda M. Richter: DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2050, South Africa

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-19

Abstract: Human capital—that is the cumulative abilities, education, social skills, and mental and physical health one possesses—is increasingly recognized as key to the reduction of inequality in societies. Adverse childhood experiences have been linked to a range of human capital indicators, with the majority of research in high-income, western settings. This study aims to examine the link between adverse childhood experiences and adult human capital in a South African birth cohort and to test whether associations differ by measurement of adversity. Secondary analysis of data from the Birth to Thirty study was undertaken. Exposure data on adversity was collected prospectively throughout childhood and retrospectively at age 22. Human capital outcomes were collected at age 28. Adversity was measured as single adverse experiences, cumulative adversity, and clustered adversity. All three measurements of adversity were linked to poor human capital outcomes, with risk for poor human capital increasing with the accumulation of adversity. Adversity was clustered by quantity (low versus high) and type (household dysfunction versus abuse). Adversity in childhood was linked to a broad range of negative outcomes in young adulthood regardless of how it was measured. Nevertheless, issues of measurement are important to understand the risk mechanisms that underlie the association between adversity and poor human capital.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences; ACEs; human capital; birth cohort; clustered adversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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