title: Childhood poverty and adult psychological well-being.
abstract: Childhood disadvantage has repeatedly been linked to adult physical morbidity and mortality. We show in a prospective, longitudinal design that childhood poverty predicts multimethodological indices of adult (24 y of age) psychological well-being while holding constant similar childhood outcomes assessed at age 9. Adults from low-income families manifest more allostatic load, an index of chronic physiological stress, higher levels of externalizing symptoms (e.g., aggression) but not internalizing symptoms (e.g., depression), and more helplessness behaviors. In addition, childhood poverty predicts deficits in adult short-term spatial memory.
authors.affiliation: Department of Design & Environmental Analysis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; gwe1@cornell.edu.|Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
authors.forename: Gary W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Evans
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D001523:Mental Disorders; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012946:Social Welfare / Q000523:psychology*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: childhood disadvantage; helplessness; memory; psychological health; stress