The Impact of Physical and Sexual Abuse in Childhood on Adult Economic Outcomes: Evidence from the Ontario Child Health Study

32 Pages Posted: 11 Jun 2007

See all articles by Paul Contoyannis

Paul Contoyannis

McMaster University - Department of Economics

Martin D. Dooley

McMaster University - Department of Economics

Date Written: May 25, 2007

Abstract

In this paper we use data from the Ontario Child Health Study, a community panel study which collected socio-demographic and health information from individuals aged 4-16 in 1983 and which was conducted in three waves (1983, 1987, 2001). A rare property of this survey is that questions were included in 2001 to obtain retrospective reports of physical and sexual abuse in childhood on an ordinal scale. We use this information to examine the neglected topic of the adulthood economic consequences of physical and sexual abuse in childhood.

We present descriptive analyses which examine simple and partial correlations between our measures of adult economic outcomes and ordinal measures of abuse. We then estimate single equation regression models for each of our economic outcome variables as a function of the abuse variables and other socioeconomic characteristics. In a third stage we include education variables to examine whether these variables mediate the effects of abuse in childhood to adulthood economic outcomes.

Keywords: Child abuse, Education, Wages, Earnings

JEL Classification: I10, I12,J20, J30

Suggested Citation

Contoyannis, Paul and Dooley, Martin D., The Impact of Physical and Sexual Abuse in Childhood on Adult Economic Outcomes: Evidence from the Ontario Child Health Study (May 25, 2007). iHEA 2007 6th World Congress: Explorations in Health Economics Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=992527 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.992527

Paul Contoyannis (Contact Author)

McMaster University - Department of Economics ( email )

KTH416
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4
Canada
9055259140 ext 26582 (Phone)

Martin D. Dooley

McMaster University - Department of Economics ( email )

Kenneth Taylor Hall Room 410
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M4
Canada

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