Research ReportChildhood adversities, adulthood life events and depression
Section snippets
Population
Data were obtained from the Health and Social Support study, a longitudinal study of a population sample representative of the Finnish population in the following four age groups: 20–24, 30–34, 40–44 and 50–54 years at baseline (1998) (Phase 1) (Korkeila et al., 2001). The 1998 postal survey was conducted in 1998 and 5 years later (2003) (Phase 2), a follow-up questionnaire was sent to all participants still living in Finland. Of the 25,901 respondents in 1998, 1216 had died during the five-year
Results
The sample comprised a total of 16,877 participants, 62% women and 38% men, with no indication of a previous depression. Of these, 58% reported at least one childhood adversity. Women, older participants, participants with low educational attainment, higher intake of alcohol and participants with a physical illness reported more childhood adversities than other participants (Table 1). The number of LEs was higher among women, in younger age groups and among participants with low educational
Discussion
Using a large population sample representative of the Finnish population in four age groups, the present study shows three key findings. First, we found that childhood adversities were associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing a high number of LEs in adulthood, and of perceiving them as burdensome or extremely burdensome. This finding is in keeping with the results of previous research by Horwitz et al. (2001), who found in a large cohort of children that abuse increased stressful
Role of funding source
Nothing declared.
Conflict of interest
No conflict declared.
Acknowledgements
Funding: This work was supported by the Academy of Finland [grant numbers 110451, 117604, 124271, 128089, and 129262] and the Yrjö Jahnsson's Foundation.
We would like to thank Mrs. Jacqueline Välimäki for checking the language of this manuscript.
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