The Effects of Childhood Health on Young Adult Education Outcomes

Presenter: Narayan Sastry, University of Michigan

We investigate the relationship between poor childhood health and educational attainment in young adulthood. The transition to adulthood is now typically launched by completing secondary school and enrolling in higher education. We take a population health perspective to assess the role of childhood mental and physical health in shaping the likelihood of finishing secondary school and of attending college. Differences in health among youth create distinct positional disadvantages that directly complicate how individuals are able to sustain engagement in and progress through school. Consequently, youth experiencing physical and mental health problems will be less likely to complete secondary school and to attend college. We test this proposition using data from the Transition into Adulthood Supplement (TAS) to the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). TAS follows into early adulthood an original cohort of children who were born to PSID sample members and participated in the PSID Child Development Supplement (from which information on childhood health is obtained). Our study extends the nascent literature on the relationship between health and educational attainment by focusing on a range of health conditions recorded for the TAS sample members, including pre-natal health, chronic physical conditions (such as asthma and sensory limitations), obesity, and psychological/behavioral problems (such as depression and anxiety). We find that the effects of family socioeconomic status on educational attainment are not altered by controlling for child health. We find significant deleterious effects on educational attainment of the mother’s rating of the child’s health, asthma, and children’s externalizing behavior problems.