Valdes Viviane, Craighead Linda W, Nelson Charles A, Bosquet Enlow Michelle
Boston Children's Hospital (Division of Developmental Medicine), Brookline, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Harvard Medical School (Department of Pediatrics), Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2024 Dec 26;19(12):e0315019. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0315019. eCollection 2024.
Exposure to stressful events is linked to anxiety symptoms in children, although research examining this association in the first five years of life is limited. We sought to examine the role of various aspects of family stressful experiences such as the total accumulation, impact, and type (measured longitudinally in the first five years of life) on child anxiety symptoms at age 5 years. A community sample of children and their parents (N = 399) enrolled in a longitudinal study of emotion processing were assessed when the children were infants and at ages 2 years, 3 years, and 5 years. Parents completed the Revised Life Events Questionnaire (all visits) to assess family exposures to stressful life events and the Child Behavior Checklist (5 years) to assess child emotional and behavioral symptoms. Analyses showed that total stressful events accumulated by 4 years were significantly associated with child anxiety symptoms at 5 years (r = 0.118, p = 0.045). Total stressful events accumulated at earlier time points (by 1 year, 2 years, and 3 years of age) were not significantly associated with child anxiety symptoms at 5 years. Events reported as being impactful by families appeared to be more sensitive than total events, with accumulated impactful events as early as 1 year being significantly associated with child anxiety symptoms at 5 years (r = 0.112, p = 0.042). When considering types of stressors, cumulative exposure from the prenatal period to 5 years to financial stressors (β = 0.12, p = .035) was most saliently and significantly associated with child anxiety symptoms at 5 years (after adjusting for other categories of stress such as health, interpersonal, and logistical stressors). Together, these findings suggest that stressful life events accumulated in early life, particularly those rated as impactful for the family and those related to finances, are associated with child anxiety symptoms at 5 years.
接触压力事件与儿童的焦虑症状有关，尽管研究这一关联在生命最初五年中的情况有限。我们试图研究家庭压力经历的各个方面，如总累积量、影响和类型（在生命的前五年纵向测量）对5岁儿童焦虑症状的作用。对参与情绪加工纵向研究的儿童及其父母的社区样本（N = 399）在儿童为婴儿期、2岁、3岁和5岁时进行了评估。父母完成了修订版生活事件问卷（所有访视）以评估家庭接触的生活压力事件，并完成了儿童行为清单（5岁时）以评估儿童的情绪和行为症状。分析表明，4岁时累积的压力事件总数与5岁时儿童的焦虑症状显著相关（r = 0.118，p = 0.045）。在更早时间点（1岁、2岁和3岁时）累积的压力事件总数与5岁时儿童的焦虑症状无显著关联。家庭报告为有影响的事件似乎比总事件更敏感，早在1岁时累积的有影响事件与5岁时儿童的焦虑症状显著相关（r = 0.112，p = 0.042）。在考虑压力源类型时，从孕期到5岁累积接触财务压力源（β = 0.12，p = 0.035）与5岁时儿童焦虑症状最显著且显著相关（在调整其他压力类别如健康、人际和后勤压力源后）。总之，这些发现表明，早年累积的生活压力事件，特别是那些被评为对家庭有影响的事件以及与财务相关的事件，与5岁时儿童的焦虑症状有关。
