Effects of Childhood Cognitive and Behavioral Disabilities on Adult Economic Outcomes

Developmental disabilities are not rare among U.S. children and rates have been increasing in recent decades. The increases have been driven by cognitive and behavioral disorders. While some studies have investigated the effects of specific childhood conditions, particularly ADHD, on adult economic outcomes, none has considered the overall effects of cognitive and behavioral disabilities. We address this key gap by rigorously estimating effects of cognitive and behavioral impairments in childhood, which account for the bulk and increasing share of child disability cases in the U.S., on a set of salient adult economic outcomes. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 79 Child Supplement, we estimate the effects of low cognitive test scores and high behavior problem scores in childhood on receipt of disability benefits, educational attainment, employment, wages, and access to transportation and credit in adulthood, using household fixed effects models to control for potentially confounding factors that are unobserved. We find significant effects in the expected direction for both cognitive and behavioral childhood disabilities on all outcomes. The findings have important implications for well-being over the life course for a non-trivial share of the U.S. population and their families, government expenditures, and public policy.