Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir

Psychiatric disorders are a major concern in modern societies and the leading cause for economic inactivity and work disability, yet, little is known about the association between childhood adversities with later labour market participation and work disability. This is crucial to understand as factors that affect mental health start to develop early in life and influence education and employment opportunities in adulthood. There is evidence that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are strong determinants of emotional impairments and poor mental health throughout life. We aim to investigate the relevance of ACEs for employment trajectories, labour market participation and work disability over the life course. To do this we use a unique Icelandic dataset, the Stress-And-Gene-Analysis (SAGA) Cohort which was specifically designed for understanding the impact of trauma on women’s health and includes all women in Iceland (N=31,811) between 18-69 years. The linkage with income register from 1981 onwards, enables us to follow participants’ employment trajectories, including work disability, over time. This project will be the first to study the effects of trauma on employment and disability pensions in Iceland and will generate valuable knowledge for policy making – both in terms of prevention as well as buffering the impact of ACEs by highlighting high-risk populations that should be given priority access to subsidised interventions to maintain work ability