The effect of childhood adversity on mental health in young adults: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Childhood adversity has been consistently linked to negative outcomes in children’s mental health. Nonetheless, little is known about the lifelong effects of these experiences during a stage of development with high rates of both internalising and externalising problems: emerging adulthood. Therefore, the present study analyses the relation between self-reported exposure to a wide range of adversities in a community sample of young adults and externalising (deviant behaviour) and internalising (stress, anxiety and depression) outcomes. In this two-time prospective study, 490 young adults (62.4% females) with ages ranging from 18 to 20 years (M = 18.90) were interviewed in person first and then over an online questionnaire one year later (N = 84). Linear regressions were performed for each mental health outcome controlling for demographic variables. Physical abuse emerged as the best predictor of deviant behaviour in both time periods in a univocal relation, whereas internalising outcomes seemed to have a broader multifactorial association with distinct types of adversities only in Time 1. These findings, along with the results of the stability externalising consequences derived from physical abuse, emphasise the importance of prevention and intervention strategies to diminish the transmission of these maladaptive strategies in later periods of life.