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Growing Up with Unemployment

A Study of Parental Unemployment and Children's Risk of Abuse and Neglect Based on National Longitudinal 1973 Birth Cohorts in Denmark

The Danish National Institute of Social Research mc{at}sfi.dk

The study explores whether parental unemployment is a significant risk factor for abuse and neglect of children. Information from population-based registers cover several health aspects, education, social networks, family violence, parental self-destructive behaviour, parental alcohol or drug abuse, and parental unemployment. Preliminary analysis of a 10 percent randomized sample of two birth cohorts (children born in 1966 and 1973) led to the present design. The study included all Danish children born in 1973 who had been hospitalized due to abuse or neglect between the years 1979 and 1991, when the children were between 6 and 18 years of age. Population-based registers were used to gather data on health, education, social networks, family violence, parental self-destructive behaviour, parental alcohol or drug abuse and parental unemployment. The study analyses how the family situation prior to the abuse or neglect differs from the controls. The nested case cohort data were analysed by means of logistic regression to isolate the potential influence from parental unemployment. The results show that incidences of abuse or neglect of children and adolescents are seen more often in families suffering from: (1) father's neurotic disorder; (2) diminishing social networks; (3) violence in the family and parental criminality; (4) mother's alcohol or drug abuse; (5) parental lack of vocational training and (6) mother's long-term unemployment. Boys were more exposed to abuse and neglect than girls. Estimates show that the odds ratio for abuse and neglect is 1.3 if the mother had been unemployed for at least 21 weeks the previous year - standardized for other risk factors. The article suggests that as unemployment degrades and humiliates parents, it can put considerable strain on their behaviour towards their children.

Key Words: alcoholism • family dissolution • psychiatric illness • teenage mother • unemployment • domestic violence

Childhood, Vol. 7, No. 4, 421-438 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0907568200007004003


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