Bøe Tormod, Balaj Mirza, Eikemo Terje A, McNamara Courtney L, Solheim Erling F
Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare, Uni Research Health, Bergen, Norway.
Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Eur J Public Health. 2017 Feb 1;27(suppl_1):96-101. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckw253.
Financial difficulties in childhood may be associated with immediate and long-term consequences for mental health. The aim of the current paper is to investigate the association between childhood financial difficulties and adult depression, and assess the relative contribution of financial difficulties in childhood to symptoms of adult depression across different age groups.
Using three age cohorts (25–40, 41–59, 60–75) from 19 countries in the European Social Survey Round 7 (N =18 401), multi-level and country-wise OLS regression analyses were used to investigate the association between financial difficulties in childhood and adult depression, while adjusting for age, education, gender, highest education in family, level of family conflict, number of social meetings and marital status.
Financial difficulties in childhood was found to be influential predictors of depression scores for 25–40 year olds in 10 out of 19 countries in fully adjusted models. In older participants, depression scores were mostly influenced by frequency of social meetings and marital status. There was great variation in the pattern of influential risk factors across countries, and the predicted effect childhood financial difficulties had on adult depression scores.
Childhood financial difficulties as predictors of depression appear to, by themselves, exert the strongest influence in younger adults. There was, however, large variation between countries in the magnitude of associated risk, and in the pattern of risk factors contributing to adult depression, which underscores the need to account for country-level factors when aiming to gain knowledge about mental health.
童年时期的经济困难可能会对心理健康产生直接和长期的影响。本文旨在研究童年时期的经济困难与成年期抑郁症之间的关联，并评估童年时期经济困难对不同年龄组成年期抑郁症症状的相对影响。
利用欧洲社会调查第7轮中来自19个国家的三个年龄组（25 - 40岁、41 - 59岁、60 - 75岁）（N = 18401）的数据，采用多层次和国家层面的OLS回归分析来研究童年时期的经济困难与成年期抑郁症之间的关联，同时对年龄、教育程度、性别、家庭最高教育程度、家庭冲突程度、社交聚会次数和婚姻状况进行了调整。
在完全调整后的模型中，发现童年时期的经济困难是19个国家中10个国家25 - 40岁人群抑郁评分的有影响的预测因素。在年龄较大的参与者中，抑郁评分大多受社交聚会频率和婚姻状况的影响。各国之间有影响的风险因素模式以及童年经济困难对成年抑郁评分的预测效果存在很大差异。
童年时期的经济困难作为抑郁症的预测因素，似乎本身对较年轻的成年人影响最强。然而，各国之间在相关风险的大小以及导致成年期抑郁症的风险因素模式方面存在很大差异，这突出了在旨在了解心理健康时考虑国家层面因素的必要性。
