Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-04T02:24:39.692Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impact of dimensions of early adversity on adult health and functioning: A 2-decade, longitudinal study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2022

Ellen W. McGinnis ,
Margaret Sheridan Open the ORCID record for Margaret Sheridan [Opens in a new window]  and
William E. Copeland Open the ORCID record for William E. Copeland [Opens in a new window]
Ellen W. McGinnis
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, USA
Margaret Sheridan
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
William E. Copeland*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, USA
*
Corresponding author: William E. Copeland, email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Recent neurodevelopmental and evolutionary theories offer strong theoretical rationales and some empirical evidence to support the importance of specific dimensions of early adversity. However, studies have often been limited by omission of other adversity dimensions, singular outcomes, and short follow up durations. 1,420 participants in the community, Great Smoky Mountains Study, were assessed up to eight times between age 9 and 16 for four dimensions of early adversity: Threat, Material Deprivation, Unpredictability, and Loss (as well as a Cumulative Adversity measure). Participants were followed up to four times in adulthood (ages 19, 21, 25, and 30) to measure psychiatric disorders, substance disorder, and “real-world” functioning. Every childhood adversity dimension was associated with multiple adult psychiatric, substance, or functional outcomes when tested simultaneously in a multivariable analysis that accounted for other childhood adversities. There was evidence of differential impact of dimensions of adversity exposure on proximal outcomes (e.g., material deprivation and IQ) and even on distal outcomes (e.g., threat and emotional functioning). There were similar levels of prediction between the best set of individual adversity scales and a single cumulative adversity measure when considering distal outcomes. All dimensions of childhood adversity have lasting, pleiotropic effects, on adult health and functioning, but these dimensions may act via distinct proximal pathways.

Keywords

child adversitydeprivationlife historylongitudinalthreat
Type
Special Issue Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 34 , Issue 2: Special Issue: Dimensions of early experience and adaptive and maladaptive development , May 2022 , pp. 527 - 538
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angold, A., Costello, E., Messer, S., & Pickles, A. (1995). Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5(4), 237–249.Google Scholar
Angold, A., & Costello, E. J. (1995). A test-retest reliability study of child-reported psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA-C). Psychological Medicine, 25(4), 755–762. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291700034991 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angold, A., & Costello, E. J. (2000). The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 39(1), 39–48. https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-200001000-00015 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angold, A., Cox, A., Prendergast, M., Rutter, M., Simonoff, E., Costello, E. J.…Ascher, B. H. (1999). The young adult psychiatric assessment (YAPA). Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Schlomer, G. L., & Ellis, B. J. (2012). Beyond cumulative risk: Distinguishing harshness and unpredictability as determinants of parenting and early life history strategy. Developmental Psychology, 48(3), 662–673, http://doi.org.ezproxy.uvm.edu/10.1037/a0024454 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Benjamini, Y., & Hochberg, Y. (1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 57, 289–300.Google Scholar
Belsky, J., Steinberg, L., & Draper, P. (1991). Childhood experience, interpersonal development, and reproductive strategy: An evolutionary theory of socialization. Child Development, 62(4), 647–670.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bos, K. J., Fox, N., Zeanah, C. H., & Nelson Iii, C. A. (2009). Effects of early psychosocial deprivation on the development of memory and executive function. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, 16. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.08.016.2009 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boyce, W. T., & Ellis, B. J. (2005). Biological sensitivity to context: I. An evolutionary-developmental theory of the origins and functions of stress reactivity. Development and Psychopathology, 17(2), 271–301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Harris, T., & Copeland, J. J. (1977). Depression and loss. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 130(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.130.1.1 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Harris, T. O., & Hepworth, C. (1995). Loss, humiliation and entrapment among women developing depression: A patient and non-patient comparison. Psychological Medicine, 25(1), 7–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329170002804X CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brumbach, B. H., Figueredo, A. J., & Ellis, B. J. (2009). Effects of harsh and unpredictable environments in adolescence on development of life history strategies. Human Nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 20(1), 25–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-009-9059-3 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colich, N. L., Rosen, M. L., Williams, E. S., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2020). Biological aging in childhood and adolescence following experiences of threat and deprivation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(9), 721–764. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000270 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Copeland, W. E., Shanahan, L., Hinesley, J., Chan, R. F., Aberg, K. A., Fairbank, J. A.…Costello, E. J. (2018). Association of childhood trauma exposure with adult psychiatric disorders and functional outcomes. JAMA Network Open, 1(7), e184493. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.4493 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costello, E. J., Angold, A., March, J., & Fairbank, J. (1998). Life events and post-traumatic stress: The development of a new measure for children and adolescents. Psychological Medicine, 28(6), 1275–1288. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291798007569 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costello, E. J., Mustillo, S., Erkanli, A., Keeler, G., & Angold, A. (2003). Prevalence and development of psychiatric disorders in childhood and adolescence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 60(8), 837–844. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.60.8.837 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dinwiddie, S., Heath, A. C., Dunne, M. P., Bucholz, K. K., Madden, P. A., Slutske, W. S.…Martin, N. G. (2000). Early sexual abuse and lifetime psychopathology: A co-twin-control study. Psychological Medicine, 30(1), 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291799001373 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eigsti, I.-M., Weitzman, C., Schuh, J., de Marchena, A., & Casey, B. J. (2011). Language and cognitive outcomes in internationally adopted children. Development and Psychopathology, 23(2), 629–646. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579411000204 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ellis, B. J., Figueredo, A. J., Brumbach, B. H., & Schlomer, G. L. (2009). Fundamental dimensions of environmental risk: The impact of harsh versus unpredictable environments on the evolution and development of life history strategies. Human Nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 20(2), 204–268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-009-9063-7 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2007). Childhood poverty and health: Cumulative risk exposure and stress dysregulation. Psychological Science, 18(11), 953–957. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.02008.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garmezy, N., Masten, A. S., & Tellegen, A. (1984). The study of stress and competence in children: A building block for developmental psychopathology. Child Development, 55(1), 97–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/1129837 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, A. L., Sheridan, M. A., Peverill, M., Busso, D. S., Lambert, H. K., Alves, S.…McLaughlin, K. A. (2016). Childhood abuse and reduced cortical thickness in brain regions involved in emotional processing. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 57(10), 1154–1164. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12630 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Graber, J. A., Seeley, J. R., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (2004). Is pubertal timing associated with psychopathology in young adulthood. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 43(6), 718–726. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.chi.0000120022.14101.11 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gündel, H., O’Connor, M.-F., Littrell, L., Fort, C., & Lane, R. D. (2003). Functional neuroanatomy of grief: An fMRI study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 160(11), 1946–1953. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.160.11.1946 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henry, L. M., Gracey, K., Shaffer, A., Ebert, J., Kuhn, T., Watson, K. H.…Compas, B. E. (2021). Comparison of three models of adverse childhood experiences: Associations with child and adolescent internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 130(1), 9–25. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000644 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Humphreys, K. L., McGoron, L., Sheridan, M. A., McLaughlin, K. A., Fox, N. A., Nelson, C. A.…Zeanah, C. H. (2015). High-quality foster care mitigates callous-unemotional traits following early deprivation in boys: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(12), 977–983. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.09.010 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, D., Policelli, J., Li, M., Dharamsi, A., Hu, Q., Sheridan, M. A.…Wade, M. (2021). Associations of early-life threat and deprivation with executive functioning in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Pediatrics, 175(11), e212511. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.2511 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kessler, R. C., Davis, C. G., & Kendler, K. S. (1997). Childhood adversity and adult psychiatric disorder in the US National Comorbidity Survey. Psychological Medicine, 27(5), 1101–1119. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291797005588 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kokic, P. N., & Bell, P. A. (1994). Optimal Winsorizing cutoffs for a stratified finite population estimator. Journal of Official Statistics, 10(4), 419.Google Scholar
Lambert, H. K., King, K. M., Monahan, K. C., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2017). Differential associations of threat and deprivation with emotion regulation and cognitive control in adolescence. Development and Psychopathology, 29(3), 929–940. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579416000584 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luecken, L. J. (2008). Long-term consequences of parental death in childhood: Psychological and physiological manifestations. In Stroebe, M. S., Hansson, R. O., Schut, H., Stroebe, W. (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research and practice: Advances in theory and intervention (pp. 397–416). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14498-019Google Scholar
Machlin, L., Miller, A. B., Snyder, J., McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2019). Differential associations of deprivation and threat with cognitive control and fear conditioning in early childhood. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 13, 80. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2019.00080 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Masten, A. S., & Cicchetti, D. (2010). Developmental cascades. Development and Psychopathology, 22(3), 491–495. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579410000222 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCrory, E. J., De Brito, S. A., Kelly, P. A., Bird, G., Sebastian, C. L., Mechelli, A.…Viding, E. (2013). Amygdala activation in maltreated children during pre-attentive emotional processing. The British Journal of Psychiatry: The Journal of Mental Science, 202(4), 269–276. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.112.116624 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLaughlin, K. A., Conron, K. J., Koenen, K. C., & Gilman, S. E. (2010). Childhood adversity, adult stressful life events, and risk of past-year psychiatric disorder: A test of the stress sensitization hypothesis in a population-based sample of adults. Psychological Medicine, 40(10), 1647–1658. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709992121 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, K. A., Green, J. G., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2010). Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) III: Associations with functional impairment related to DSM-IV disorders. Psychological Medicine, 40(5), 847–859. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291709991115 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLaughlin, K. A., Greif Green, J., Gruber, M. J., Sampson, N. A., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2012). Childhood adversities and first onset of psychiatric disorders in a national sample of US adolescents. Archives of General Psychiatry, 69(11), 1151–1160. https://doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.2277 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaughlin, K. A., Peverill, M., Gold, A. L., Alves, S., & Sheridan, M. A. (2015). Child maltreatment and neural systems underlying emotion regulation. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 54(9), 753–762. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2015.06.010 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., Humphreys, K. L., Belsky, J., & Ellis, B. J. (2021). The value of dimensional models of early experience: Thinking clearly about concepts and categories. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 16(6), 1463–1472.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLaughlin, K. A., Sheridan, M. A., & Lambert, H. K. (2014). Childhood adversity and neural development: Deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early experience. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 47, 578–591. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.10.012 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, A. B., Machlin, L., McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2021). Deprivation and psychopathology in the Fragile Families Study: A 15-year longitudinal investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62(4), 382–391. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13260 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, A. B., Machlin, L., McLaughlin, K. A., & Sheridan, M. A. (2021). Deprivation and psychopathology in the Fragile Families Study: A 15‐year longitudinal investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 62(4), 382–391.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, A. B., Sheridan, M. A., Hanson, J. L., McLaughlin, K. A., Bates, J. E., Lansford, J. E.…Dodge, K. A. (2018). Dimensions of deprivation and threat, psychopathology, and potential mediators: A multi-year longitudinal analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 127(2), 160–170. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000331 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monroe, S. M. (2008). Modern approaches to conceptualizing and measuring human life stress. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 4, 33–52. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.4.022007.141207 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monroe, S. M., Rohde, P., Seeley, J. R., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (1999). Life events and depression in adolescence: Relationship loss as a prospective risk factor for first onset of major depressive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108(4), 606–614. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-843x.108.4.606 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narum, S. R. (2006). Beyond Bonferroni: Less conservative analyses for conservation genetics. Conservation Genetics, 7(5), 783–787.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nisbett, R., Aronson, J., Blair, C., Dickens, W., Flynn, J., Halpern, D.…Turkheimer, E. (2012). Correction to nisbett et al (2012). The American Psychologist, 67, 129. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027240 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pham, S., Porta, G., Biernesser, C., Walker Payne, M., Iyengar, S., Melhem, N.…Brent, D. A. (2018). The burden of bereavement: Early-onset depression and impairment in youths bereaved by sudden parental death in a 7-year prospective study. American Journal of Psychiatry, 175(9), 887–896. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2018.17070792 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollak, S. D., Nelson, C. A., Schlaak, M. F., Roeber, B. J., Wewerka, S. S., Wiik, K. L.…Gunnar, M. R. (2010). Neurodevelopmental effects of early deprivation in postinstitutionalized children. Child Development, 81(1), 224–236. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01391.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pollak, S. D., & Tolley-Schell, S. A. (2003). Selective attention to facial emotion in physically abused children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112(3), 323–338. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843x.112.3.323 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raposo, S. M., Mackenzie, C. S., Henriksen, C. A., & Afifi, T. O. (2014). Time does not heal all wounds: Older adults who experienced childhood adversities have higher odds of mood, anxiety, and personality disorders. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 22(11), 1241–1250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2013.04.009 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosen, M. L., Sheridan, M. A., Sambrook, K. A., Meltzoff, A. N., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2018). Socioeconomic disparities in academic achievement: A multi-modal investigation of neural mechanisms in children and adolescents. NeuroImage, 173, 298–310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.02.043 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sameroff, A. J., Bartko, W. T., Baldwin, A., Baldwin, C., & Seifer, R. (1998). Family and social influences on the development of child competence. In Lewis, M. & Feiring, C. (Eds.), Families, risk, and competence. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers: 161–185.Google Scholar
Schaefer, J. D., Moffitt, T. E., Arseneault, L., Danese, A., Fisher, H. L., Houts, R.…Caspi, A. (2018). Adolescent victimization and early-adult psychopathology: Approaching causal inference using a longitudinal twin study to rule out noncausal explanations. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(3), 352–371. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617741381 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheridan, M. A., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2014). Dimensions of early experience and neural development: Deprivation and threat. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18(11), 580–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2014.09.001 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sheridan, M. A., Peverill, M., Finn, A. S., & McLaughlin, K. A. (2017). Dimensions of childhood adversity have distinct associations with neural systems underlying executive functioning. Development and Psychopathology, 29(5), 1777–1794. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579417001390 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Simpson, J., Griskevicius, V., Kuo, S. I. C., Sung, S., & Collins, W. A. (2012). Evolution, stress, and sensitive periods: The influence of unpredictability in early versus late childhood on sex and risky behavior. Developmental Psychology, 48(3), 674–686. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027293 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tibu, F., Sheridan, M. A., McLaughlin, K. A., Nelson, C. A., Fox, N. A., & Zeanah, C. H. (2016). Disruptions of working memory and inhibition mediate the association between exposure to institutionalization and symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychological Medicine, 46(3), 529–541. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715002020 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trentacosta, C. J., Hyde, L. W., Shaw, D. S., Dishion, T. J., Gardner, F., & Wilson, M. (2008). The relations among cumulative risk, parenting, and behavior problems during early childhood. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49(11), 1211–1219. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01941.x Google ScholarPubMed
Wechsler, D. (2011). Wechsler abbreviated scale of intelligence-(WASI-II). NCS Pearson, San Antonio, TX, Open Access This Article Is Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, 4,Google Scholar
White, T., van der Ende, J., & Nichols, T. E. (2019). Beyond Bonferroni revisited: Concerns over inflated false positive research findings in the fields of conservation genetics, biology, and medicine. Conservation Genetics, 20(4), 927–937. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-019-01178-0 CrossRefGoogle Scholar