Abstract
BackgroundMost previous studies on reliance on social benefits have focused on health, sickness absence, work environment and socioeconomic status in adulthood. Extending the focus to include early life circumstances may improve our understanding of processes leading to educational and occupational marginalisation and exclusion. The aim of this study was to investigate if multiple negative life events in childhood determined future labour market participation, and to identify important negative life events for labour market participation in young adulthood.MethodsOf a cohort of 3,681 born in 1989 in the county of Ringkjoebing, Denmark, 3,058 (83%) completed a questionnaire in 2004. They were followed in a register on social benefits for 12 months in 2010-2011. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate associations between negative life events in childhood and future labour market participation, taking into account effects of socio-economic position, school performance, educational plans, vocational expectations and general health.ResultsA total of 17.1% (19.9% males, 14.4% females) received social benefits for at least 4 weeks during follow-up. Labour market participation decreased with number of negative life events, especially for females: Females who had experienced their parents’ divorce, had been abused, or had witnessed a violent event, showed decreased labour market participation, when adjusting for SES, school performance, educational plans, vocational expectations and general health at baseline. Attributable fractions ranged from 2.4% (parents’ alcohol/drug abuse) to 16.1% (parents’ divorce) for women. For men, risk estimates were lower and insignificant in the most adjusted models. Attributable fractions ranged from 1.0% (parents’ alcohol/drug abuse) to 4.9% for witnessing a violent event.ConclusionsInformation on childhood conditions may increase the understanding of determinants of labour market participation for young adults. Knowledge of negative life events in childhood should be taken into account when considering determinants of labour market participation and identifying high-risk groups.
Highlights
Marginalisation from working life among young people has caused growing concerns in several industrialised countries [1]
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether adverse circumstances in terms of specific negative life events (NLE) in childhood determined later labour market participation, and to identify which negative life events constituted the largest risk
These analyses were performed in four steps: Step one presented the crude OR for associations, step two was adjusted for socioeconomic status (SES), step three was further adjusted for school grades, educational plans and vocational expectations, and the final step four was further adjusted for self-rated health
Summary
Marginalisation from working life among young people has caused growing concerns in several industrialised countries [1]. Understanding the determinants leading young people to dependency of social benefits rather than starting an education or entering working life is of great interest for both researchers and decision makers, especially in times of economical decline. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate associations between negative life events in childhood and future labour market participation, taking into account effects of socio-economic position, school performance, educational plans, vocational expectations and general health. Analysis was performed for three exposure categories (0, 1-2, 3-5) according to numbers of NLE during childhood, as well as for each single NLE item These analyses were performed in four steps: Step one presented the crude OR for associations, step two was adjusted for SES, step three was further adjusted for school grades, educational plans and vocational expectations, and the final step four was further adjusted for self-rated health. All analyses were performed using STATA MP2 version 12 for Mac OS X. [23]
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