Making the Grade: The Impact of Childhood Asthma on High School Completion

Abstract

Based in a life course approach, this study examined the relationship between childhood asthma and high school completion by age 20 using a longitudinal cohort of 6,393 respondents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Parental resources, parental behaviours, and critical periods of development were included as controls. Childhood physical and mental conditions (aside from asthma) were included as comparators. School absenteeism was included as a potentially mediating factor in the relationship between asthma and high school completion. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed no relationship between the presence of asthma at any time during childhood and high school completion by age 20. Instead, results revealed a statistically significant relationship between having a physical or mental condition (aside from asthma) and high school completion by age 20. Results also showed that parental resources and behaviours were significant predictors of high school completion. Additionally, absenteeism was not a mediating variable, but rather, an independently statistically significant predictor of high school completion by age 20.