Childhood family wealth and mental health in a national cohort of young adults

Abstract

Purpose Mental health is critical to young adult health, as the onset of 75% of psychiatric disorders occurs by age 24 and psychiatric disorders early in life predict later behavioral health problems. Wealth may serve as a buffer against economic stressors. Family wealth may be particularly relevant for young adults by providing them with economic resources as they make educational decisions and move towards financial and social independence. Methods We used prospectively collected data from 2060 young adults aged 18–27 in 2005–2011 from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a national cohort of US families. We examined associations between nonspecific psychological distress (measured with the K-6 scale) and childhood average household wealth during ages 0–18 years (net worth in 2010 dollars). Results In demographics-adjusted generalized estimating equation models, higher childhood wealth percentile was related to a lower prevalence of serious psychological distress: compared to below-median wealth, prevalence ratio (PR) = 0.56 (0.36–0.87) for 3rd quartile and PR = 0.46 (0.29–0.73) for 4th quartile. The associations were attenuated slightly by adjustment for parent education and more so by adjustment for childhood household income percentile. Conclusions Understanding the lifelong processes through which distinct aspects of socioeconomic status affect mental health can help us identify high-risk populations and take steps to minimize future disparities in mental illness.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury and Suicide: The Role of Life Events in Clinical and Non-Clinical Populations of Adolescents

“…In line with Nock's model, life events might act both as distal and proximal risk factors for NSSI. As distal risk factors, life events can increase vulnerability to stressors through pathways such as dysregulation of the immune and stress-response systems (34,35). As proximal risk factors, Kaess and colleagues (24) found that the number of life events, specifically interpersonal events in the past six months predicted the first onset of direct selfinjurious behaviors in the following year in a sample of high school students, suggesting that life events might play a critical role in the development of self-injury.…”

Childhood Socioeconomic Status and Late-Adulthood Mental Health: Results From the Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

“…Nevertheless, in spite of the rising burden of mental health illness at various stages of the lifecourse (Alexopoulos (2005), Ferrari et al (2013) and World Health Organization 2017)commensurately few contributions have considered the relationship between childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and mental health problems, such as depression, in late-adulthood (Smith, 2015). Indeed, while the early contributions of Power et al (2007), Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka (2002), Gilman, Kawachi, Fitzmaurice, & Buka (2003) and Lê-Scherban, Brenner, & Schoeni (2016) consider the association between childhood SES and depression at various points of the life-course, Luo & Waite (2005) and Tani et al (2016) are some of the few contributions dealing with childhood SES and depression in late-adulthoodthe former focusing on the United States and the latter on Japan.…”

Direct Self-Injurious Behavior (D-SIB) and Life Events among Vocational School and High School Students

“…Previous research suggests that low SES in childhood may not only increase exposure to stressful events. As a distal risk factor, it might also increase vulnerability to stressors through pathways such as dysregulation of the immune and stress-response systems [ 25 , 26 ]. Moreover, stressful events might be associated with D-SIB not only as distal but also as proximal risk factors: based on the SEYLE Study, Kaess and colleagues [ 24 ] found that the number of life events in the past six months predicted the first onset of D-SIB in the following year, suggesting that interpersonal life events play a critical role in the development of D-SIB.…”