Adverse childhood experiences, from physical and sexual violence to poverty and neglect, are likely to severely hamper an adult’s potential for a productive, prosperous and healthy life.
A study conducted by Sara Naicker of the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at Johannesburg’s Wits University, and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, has unpacked the impact of early life adversity on human capital outcomes.
Using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) index — a tally of individual adverse childhood experiences — adjusted for the South African context, the study measured the number and type of adversities experienced in childhood.
“The ACEs ranged from physical, sexual and emotional that multiple adverse experiences have on human capital. As each additional ACE is added to a child’s life, their risk for poor human capital increases in a graded manner,” said Naicker.
The World Bank’s Human Capital Index (HCI) estimates that, globally, children born today will only reach 56% of their human capital potential because of the risks of poor health and education.
A child born in SA today will reach 41% of their potential productivity as an adult compared with if they complete their education and have full health.
Poor development in childhood can be attributed to preventable risk factors, such as exposure to violence and neglect.
Recent estimates of the economic impact and social burden of exposure to violence in childhood put its cost to SA at almost 5% of GDP.
However, according to Naicker, experiences of violence are rarely the only adversity a child faces. Adversities tend to cluster, sometimes in discernible patterns, and where one adverse experience is present, there are likely to be others.
This accumulation over time leads to cumulative or toxic stress.
“The snowball effect of exposure to cumulative adversities could eventually lead to disruptions in physiological stress responses that change how we react to the world around us and hamper our health and wellbeing,” said Naicker
The study used data from the Birth to Thirty study, which contains comprehensive information on a range of exposures and outcomes from birth to age 28.
The snowball effect of exposure to cumulative adversities could eventually lead to disruptions in physiological stress responses that change how we react to the world around us and hamper our health and wellbeing.
— Sara Naicker, researcher
The ACEs ranged from physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect to chronic unemployment, substance abuse, exposure to violence and other indicators of household dysfunction.
“Those individuals who experience six or more ACEs in childhood have a greater risk for criminality, psychological distress, unemployment and incomplete schooling in adulthood.”
According to the study, unemployment in adulthood is associated with childhood physical abuse, household death and substance abuse in the home.
Individuals who experience physical, sexual or emotional abuse/neglect are more likely to not complete secondary school.
Those who experience sexual abuse or have chronic levels of unemployment in their home are more likely to collect welfare in the form of the child support grant.
Sexual abuse survivors and those who lived with a substance abuser as a child have a higher risk for HIV infection.
The study shows that criminal behaviour in adulthood is linked to emotional abuse/neglect as a child and exposure to intimate partner violence in the home.
“Many of these human capital outcomes are directly related to productivity. For example, incomplete schooling and unemployment directly affect an individual’s capacity to engage in the labour market.
“Substance abuse and mental health problems, including depressive disorders, are two of the top risk factors for the most disease burden in SA that contribute to the country’s disability-adjust life years. Overall, adversity in childhood is linked to unrealised potential in human development.”
Naicker said the pillars of human capital — health and education — must be strengthened to cultivate a skilled, healthy, happy and productive workforce to enhance a country’s inclusive economic growth potential.
“This is especially important in Africa, the youngest continent, with about 70% of our population under the age of 30. Research shows that giving children the best possible start in life is central in developing a country’s human capital.”
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