IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v142y2015icp109-117.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cumulative exposure to childhood stressors and subsequent psychological distress. An analysis of US panel data

Author

Listed:
  • Björkenstam, Emma
  • Burström, Bo
  • Brännström, Lars
  • Vinnerljung, Bo
  • Björkenstam, Charlotte
  • Pebley, Anne R.

Abstract

Research has shown that childhood stress increases the risk of poor mental health later in life. We examined the effect of childhood stressors on psychological distress and self-reported depression in young adulthood. Data were obtained from the Child Development Supplement (CDS) to the national Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), a survey of US families that incorporates data from parents and their children. In 2005 and 2007, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics was supplemented with two waves of Transition into Adulthood (TA) data drawn from a national sample of young adults, 18–23 years old. This study included data from participants in the CDS and the TA (n = 2128), children aged 4–13 at baseline. Data on current psychological distress was used as an outcome variable in logistic regressions, calculated as odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Latent Class Analyses were used to identify clusters based on the different childhood stressors. Associations were observed between cumulative exposure to childhood stressors and both psychological distress and self-reported depression. Individuals being exposed to three or more stressors had the highest risk (crude OR for psychological distress: 2.49 (95% CI: 1.16–5.33), crude OR for self-reported depression: 2.07 (95% CI: 1.15–3.71). However, a large part was explained by adolescent depressive symptoms. Findings support the long-term negative impact of cumulative exposure to childhood stress on psychological distress. The important role of adolescent depression in this association also needs to be taken into consideration in future studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Björkenstam, Emma & Burström, Bo & Brännström, Lars & Vinnerljung, Bo & Björkenstam, Charlotte & Pebley, Anne R., 2015. "Cumulative exposure to childhood stressors and subsequent psychological distress. An analysis of US panel data," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 109-117.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:142:y:2015:i:c:p:109-117
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953615300587
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hope Corman & Robert Kaestner, 1992. "The effects of child health on marital status and family structure," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 29(3), pages 389-408, August.
    2. Weitoft, Gunilla Ringbäck & Hjern, Anders & Batljan, Ilija & Vinnerljung, Bo, 2008. "Health and social outcomes among children in low-income families and families receiving social assistance--A Swedish national cohort study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 14-30, January.
    3. Emma Björkenstam & Anders Hjern & Ellenor Mittendorfer-Rutz & Bo Vinnerljung & Johan Hallqvist & Rickard Ljung, 2013. "Multi-Exposure and Clustering of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Socioeconomic Differences and Psychotropic Medication in Young Adults," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, January.
    4. McMunn, Anne M. & Nazroo, James Y. & Marmot, Michael G. & Boreham, Richard & Goodman, Robert, 2001. "Children's emotional and behavioural well-being and the family environment: findings from the Health Survey for England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 423-440, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mersky, Joshua P. & Janczewski, Colleen E. & Nitkowski, Jenna C., 2018. "Poor mental health among low-income women in the U.S.: The roles of adverse childhood and adult experiences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 14-21.
    2. Mashhood Ahmed Sheikh, 2018. "Childhood adversities and chronic conditions: examination of mediators, recall bias and age at diagnosis," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(2), pages 181-192, March.
    3. Mark W. Olofson, 2018. "A New Measurement of Adverse Childhood Experiences Drawn from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(2), pages 629-647, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dackehag, Margareta & Ellegård, Lina Maria & Gerdtham, Ulf-G & Nilsson, Therese, 2018. "Social Assistance and Mental Health: Evidence from Longitudinal Data on Pharmaceutical Consumption," Working Papers 2018:2, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    2. Nancy Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2004. "Effects of child health on parents’ relationship status," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 41(3), pages 569-584, August.
    3. Andersen, Signe Hald, 2019. "The effect of aftercare on human capital acquisition among foster care alumni," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 28-41.
    4. Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Dahmann, Sarah C. & Salamanca, Nicolás & Zhu, Anna, 2022. "Intergenerational disadvantage: Learning about equal opportunity from social assistance receipt," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Xuening Chang & Xueyan Jiang & Tamara Mkandarwire & Min Shen, 2019. "Associations between adverse childhood experiences and health outcomes in adults aged 18–59 years," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-11, February.
    6. N. Meltem Daysal & Marianne Simonsen & Mircea Trandafir & Sanni Breining, 2022. "Spillover Effects of Early-Life Medical Interventions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(1), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Trinidad, Jose Eos, 2021. "Social consequences and contexts of adverse childhood experiences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    8. Reiss, Franziska, 2013. "Socioeconomic inequalities and mental health problems in children and adolescents: A systematic review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 24-31.
    9. Melisa Bubonya & Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Mark Wooden, 2017. "Job loss and the mental health of spouses and adolescent children," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-27, December.
    10. Pasqualini, M. & Lanari, D. & Pieroni, L., 2018. "Parents who exit and parents who enter. Family structure transitions, child psychological health, and early drinking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 187-196.
    11. Lawson, David W. & Mace, Ruth, 2010. "Siblings and childhood mental health: Evidence for a later-born advantage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2061-2069, June.
    12. Anette Primdal Kvist & Helena Skyt Nielsen & Marianne Simonsen, 2011. "The effects of Children’s ADHD on Parents’ Relationship Dissolution and Labor Supply," Economics Working Papers 2011-14, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    13. Ribar, David C., 2004. "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies," IZA Discussion Papers 998, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques & Élisabeth Godbout & Sylvie Drapeau & Toula Kourgiantakis & Claudine Parent, 2018. "Researching Children’s Adjustment in Stepfamilies: How is it Studied? What Do we Learn?," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(6), pages 1831-1865, December.
    15. Cory Koedel & Teerachat Techapaisarnjaroenkit, 2011. "Systematic Differences in How Mothers Assess Their Children and Implications for Developmental Research," Working Papers 1124, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 29 Oct 2012.
    16. Kelly Bedard & Allison Witman, 2020. "Family structure and the gender gap in ADHD," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1101-1129, December.
    17. Fagg, James & Curtis, Sarah & Stansfeld, Stephen & Congdon, Peter, 2006. "Psychological distress among adolescents, and its relationship to individual, family and area characteristics in East London," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 636-648, August.
    18. Brännström, Lars & Vinnerljung, Bo & Hjern, Anders, 2015. "Risk factors for teenage childbirths among child welfare clients: Findings from Sweden," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 44-51.
    19. Karen Conway & Minghua Li, 2012. "Family structure and child outcomes: a high definition, wide angle “snapshot”," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(3), pages 345-374, September.
    20. Nancy E. Reichman & Hope Corman & Kelly Noonan, 2004. "Effects of Child Health on Sources of Public Support," NBER Working Papers 10762, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:142:y:2015:i:c:p:109-117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.