The mediating role of adolescent psychopathology in the association between frequent or severe childhood abuse and labor market inactivity in young adulthood: A causal mediation approach

BACKGROUND: Labor market inactivity is common among young adults with a history of childhood abuse, which might be attributable to elevated psychopathology in adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: We examined and decomposed the effect of adolescent psychopathology in the association between frequent or severe childhood abuse and labor market inactivity in young adulthood.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: This study used data from the population and high-risk samples of the Dutch prospective TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (N = 2172).

METHODS: Childhood abuse included measures of emotional, physical and sexual abuse. We operationalized adolescent psychopathology using the broadband emotional and behavioral problem scales. Labor market inactivity in young adulthood was defined as being neither in education, employment nor training or receiving benefits. We applied causal mediation analysis combined with a four-way decomposition approach to estimate our effects of interest.

RESULTS: Individuals who reported frequent or severe childhood abuse were 1.51 (95 % CI: 1.13 to 2.22) times more likely to report labor market inactivity, constituting an excess relative risk (ERR) of 0.51. Most of this excess relative risk is due to mediation by psychopathology at 64.7 % (ERR: 0.33, 95 % CI: 0.16 to 0.50). We found no evidence for a mediated interactive effect (ERR: -0.04, 95 % CI: -0.24 to 0.24).

CONCLUSIONS: Adolescent psychopathology largely explains the association between frequent and severe childhood abuse and labor market inactivity in young adulthood. Intervening in the occurrence of adolescent psychopathology following frequent and severe childhood abuse may reduce the risk of subsequent labor market inactivity.