IRELAND
Irish Times
Paul Cullen
Fri, Aug 15, 2014
Childhood sexual abuse has a profound long-term economic impact on survivors, according to a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
Even decades after the abuse occurred, survivors are more than twice as likely as others to be out of the labour force as a result of being sick or permanently disabled, the research has established.
When account is taken of the psychological difficulties that abuse is already known to cause, male survivors are three times more likely to be sick or disabled than other men.
For women, the impact of child sexual abuse on involvement in the labour force in later life is much smaller and not statistically significant, the study finds. This may arise because the older women who were surveyed were more likely than their male peers to have been “in and out” of the workforce during their adult lives, according to co-author Prof Alan Barrett, head of the economic analysis division of ESRI.
Research has shown the links between abuse and psychological disorders such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. However, the ESRI research is one of the first to examine the economic effect on people who suffered sexual abuse in their childhood years.
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