Social adversities in adolescence predict unfavourable trajectories of internalized mental health symptoms until middle age: results from the Northern Swedish Cohort.
BACKGROUND
Experiencing adversities during upbringing has short-term and long-term effects on mental health. This study aims to explore how social adversities in adolescence predict trajectories of internalized mental health symptoms (IMHS), from adolescence and onward until middle age.


METHODS
Based on 1040 individuals from the Northern Swedish Cohort Study, a community-based cohort with 27 years of follow-up. We applied latent class growth analysis to extract trajectories of IMHS between ages 16 and 43. Multinomial logistic regression was used to study the association of social adversities (residential mobility, residential crowding, parental loss, unemployment of a parent, physical illness of a parent, mental illness or alcohol problems of a parent) in adolescence with IMHS trajectories.


RESULTS
Five trajectory classes were identified: 'very low stable' (26% of the sample), 'low stable' (58%), 'moderate stable' (5%), 'increasing' (8%) and 'high decreasing' (3%). Both in men and women, reporting social adversities at the age of 16 increased the risk of belonging to the classes with less favourable development of IMHS. Reporting adversities was positively associated with the initial level of the IMHS trajectories. Thus it seems that the influence of adversities is more pronounced during the early years of follow-up and is attenuated over time.


CONCLUSIONS
Experiencing social adversities in adolescence increases the risk of entering unfavourable developmental trajectories of mental health until middle age.
1 Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden Kristiina.Rajaleid@su.se.
Kristiina
K
Rajaleid
2 Institute for Advanced Social Research, University of Tampere, FI-33014 Tampere, Finland.
Tapio
T
Nummi
1 Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
Hugo
H
Westerlund
2 Institute for Advanced Social Research, University of Tampere, FI-33014 Tampere, Finland 3 Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Social Medicine, Umeå University SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden.
Pekka
P
Virtanen
3 Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Social Medicine, Umeå University SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden.
Per E
PE
Gustafsson
3 Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Social Medicine, Umeå University SE-901 85 Umeå, Sweden.
Anne
A
Hammarström
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010290:Parents; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013548:Sweden