Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Numerous studies have examined the consequences of childhood adversity CA and socioeconomic status SES for health over the life course.
Childhood SES was characterized as a composite measure of parental highest education level, median household income, and parental occupational status. Adult SES was characterized as composite measure of highest education level attained at age 37, median household income and occupation. In turn, CAs are associated with lower adult SES, independent of childhood SES supporting the notion that intervening on CAs early on in the lifecourse could influence health and wellbeing throughout the life course.
In a nationally representative sample of US adolescents lower childhood socioeconomic status is associated with childhood adversity. Additionally, childhood adversities were associated with lower adult socioeconomic status. In mediation analyses, childhood adversity partially mediated the relation between childhood socioeconomic status and adult socioeconomic status. In addition, the accumulation of these adversities has been shown to be more detrimental to health than experiencing one adversity in a dose response fashion Currie et al.
Individual adversities as well as the accumulation of CAs, have been associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes in childhood, adolescence and adulthood Schilling et al.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences study noted a higher risk of depression, suicidal ideation, obesity, stroke, ischemic heart disease and myocardial infarction with increasing number of adversities in childhood Felitti et al. More recent studies in younger populations have also shown that adversities are associated with lower educational attainment, depression, anxiety, substance use, obesity and hypertension Houtepen et al. Extensive literature has shown that low socioeconomic status SES is a fundamental cause of adverse outcomes across the life course Katikireddi et al.
