Wickrama Kandauda K A S, O'Neal Catherine Walker, Lee Tae Kyoung, Wickrama Thulitha
University of Georgia.
Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology.
Health Psychol. 2015 Sep;34(9):905-14. doi: 10.1037/hea0000208. Epub 2015 Mar 23.
Recent research suggests that psychosocial resources, including self-esteem, personality, and educational attainment, may be mechanisms explaining the socioeconomic variation in health risks. However, less research has examined this possibility over the early life course.
A nationally representative sample of 12,424 respondents with data collected over a 13-year period from National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) was examined. This study utilized a cumulative measure of early socioeconomic adversity capturing multiple dimensions of adversity to test resource focused models in a structural equation framework estimating the influence of early adversity on young adults' (ages 25-34) risk for cardio-metabolic disease, as measured by metabolic and cardiovascular bio-markers, through psychosocial resources (i.e., self-esteem, personality, and educational attainment). Lastly, potential model differences by sex and race/ethnicity were examined.
The findings showed that early adversity contributed to young adults' cardio-metabolic disease risk directly. Additionally, early adversity increased young adults' cardio-metabolic disease risk indirectly through its' negative influence on the development of youths' psychosocial resources: self-esteem, positive personality, and educational attainment. The association between psychosocial resources and young adults' cardio-metabolic disease risk differed for men and women and across racial/ethnic groups.
These findings contribute valuable knowledge to existing research by elucidating how early adversity exerts an enduring long-term influence on young adults' cardio-metabolic disease risk directly and indirectly through psychosocial resources. Furthermore, this information suggests that effective intervention and prevention programs should focus on early adversity and the development of youths' psychosocial resources.
近期研究表明，包括自尊、个性和教育程度在内的社会心理资源可能是解释健康风险社会经济差异的机制。然而，较少有研究在生命早期阶段探讨这种可能性。
对来自全国青少年健康纵向研究（Add Health）的12424名受访者进行了全国代表性样本研究，数据收集历时13年。本研究采用了早期社会经济逆境的累积测量方法，该方法涵盖了逆境的多个维度，以在结构方程框架中检验以资源为重点的模型，该框架估计早期逆境对年轻人（25 - 34岁）心血管代谢疾病风险的影响，心血管代谢疾病风险通过代谢和心血管生物标志物来衡量，研究通过社会心理资源（即自尊、个性和教育程度）进行。最后，研究了按性别和种族/族裔划分的潜在模型差异。
研究结果表明，早期逆境直接导致年轻人患心血管代谢疾病的风险增加。此外，早期逆境通过对青少年社会心理资源（自尊、积极个性和教育程度）发展的负面影响，间接增加了年轻人患心血管代谢疾病的风险。社会心理资源与年轻人心血管代谢疾病风险之间的关联在男性和女性以及不同种族/族裔群体中存在差异。
这些发现通过阐明早期逆境如何通过社会心理资源直接和间接地对年轻人的心血管代谢疾病风险产生持久的长期影响，为现有研究贡献了有价值的知识。此外，这些信息表明，有效的干预和预防计划应关注早期逆境以及青少年社会心理资源的发展。
