The Continuity of Adversity: Negative Emotionality Links Early Life Adversity With Adult Stressful Life Events.

ABSTRACT: Adversity that exhibits continuity across the life course has long-term detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Using 920 participants from the Dunedin Study, we tested the following hypotheses: (1) children (ages 3-15) who experienced adversity would also tend to experience adversity in adulthood (ages 32-45), and (2) interim personality traits in young adulthood (ages 18-26) would help account for this longitudinal association. Children who experienced more adversity tended to also experience more stressful life events as adults, β=.11, 95% CI [.04, .18], p=.002. Negative emotionality-particularly its sub-facet alienation, characterized by mistrust of others-helped explain this childhood-to-midlife association (indirect effect: β=.06, 95% CI [.04, .09], p<.001).

SUBMITTER: Brennan GM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11617008 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature