Study of Childhood Abuse and Anxiety: An Application of Logistic Regression

Abstract

Introduction: Disorders can often lead to physical illness and suffering along with associated functional disability which hampers the overall well-being of a person. Consequently, it can lead to loss of productivity at the workplace, absenteeism, and social isolation which eventually affects the individual and the society. Researchers have found a crucial association between childhood traumatic experiences with developing anxiety or panic disorder. Methods: The purpose of this study is to do a logistic regression on Add health data to examine whether a history of childhood abuse tends to lead to a diagnosis of anxiety or panic disorder in later life. Add health dataset was used for the analysis. Additionally, medical conditions such as ADHD, PTSD or socio-economic conditions, and addiction were also investigated for their possible contribution to developing anxiety or panic disorder. Results: 49.4 % of respondents reported having faced either physical, emotional, or sexual abuse before the age of 18. Among the total respondents, 12.5 % reported having been diagnosed with anxiety disorder and among these individuals, 25.9 % reported having experienced physical abuse, 64.6 % faced emotional abuse, and 10.3 % said they faced sexual abuse earlier in their life. Results from logistic regression showed all types of history of abuse have a significant effect on anxiety disorder. Additionally, the number of abuses experienced also increased the odds of developing an anxiety disorder. Women had higher odds of having such a disorder if they faced maltreatment in their childhood. Moreover, having PTSD and Depression also increased the odds of anxiety substantially. Conclusion: Childhood emotional abuse was found to be a more significant contributor to anxiety or panic disorder than other types of abuse. Any kind of childhood abuse experience seemed to have a greater effect on the female portion of the respondents in comparison to the males.

Keywords

• Logistic Regression
• Logit model
• Survey data analysis
• Add Health
• Anxiety and Panic Disorder.