The authors investigated what risk factors contribute to an excess risk of poor adult health among children who experience socioeconomic disadvantage. Data came from 1,037 children born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972-1973, who were followed from birth to age 32 years (2004-2005). Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) was measured at multiple points between birth and age 15 years. Risk factors evaluated included a familial liability to poor health, childhood/adolescent health characteristics, low childhood intelligence quotient (IQ), exposure to childhood maltreatment, and adult SES. Adult health outcomes evaluated at age 32 years were major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, tobacco dependence, alcohol or drug dependence, and clustering of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Results showed that low childhood SES was associated with an increased risk of substance dependence and poor physical health in adulthood (for tobacco dependence, sex-adjusted relative risk (RR) = 2.27, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.41, 3.65; for alcohol or drug dependence, RR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.16, 3.84; for cardiovascular risk factor status, RR = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.46, 4.46). Together, the risk factors studied here accounted for 55-67% of poor health outcomes among adults exposed to low SES as children. No single risk factor emerged as the prime explanation, suggesting that the processes mediating the link between childhood low SES and adult poor health are multifactorial.

https://www.hal.inserm.fr/inserm-00165622/document

Why Do Children from Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Families Suffer from Poor Health When They Reach Adulthood? A Life-Course Study

Background: Little is known about the development of anxiety symptoms from late childhood to late adolescence. The present study determined developmental trajectories of symptoms of separation anxiety disorder (SAD), social phobia (SoPh), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a large prospective community cohort. Methods: Anxiety symptoms were assessed in a community sample of 2220 boys and girls at three time-points across a 5-year interval. The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) was used to assess anxiety symptoms, and multilevel growth-curve analyses were performed. Results: All subtypes of anxiety first showed a decrease in symptoms (beta for age ranged from ‐.05 to ‐.13, p < .0001), followed by a leveling off of the decrease, and a subsequent slight increase in symptoms (beta for age-squared ranged from .006 to .01, p < .0001) from middle adolescence (GAD, SoPh, SAD) or late adolescence (PD and OCD) onwards. This increase in anxiety symptoms could not be explained by a co-occurring increase in depression symptoms. Girls had more anxiety symptoms than boys, and this difference remained stable during adolescence (p < .0001). Gender differences were strongly attenuated by adjustment for symptoms of depression. Conclusions: The current study shows that, in the general population, anxiety symptoms first decrease during early adolescence, and subsequently increase from middle to late adolescence. These findings extend our knowledge on the developmental course of anxiety symptoms during adolescence. This is the first study to separate the development of anxiety symptoms from that of symptoms of depression. Keywords: Anxiety, developmental trajectories, prospective study, adolescents, epidemiology, longitudinal studies, obsessive compulsive disorder. Abbreviations: GAD: generalized anxiety disorder; OCD: obsessive-compulsive disorder; PD: panic disorder; RCADS: Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale; SAD: separation anxiety disorder; SCARED: Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders; SoPh: social phobia; YSR: Youth Self-Report.

The developmental course of anxiety symptoms during adolescence: the TRAILS study

Background: Most psychosocial risk factors appear to have general rather than specific patterns of association with common childhood and adolescence disorders. However, previous research has typically failed to 1) control for comorbidity among disorders, 2) include a wide range of risk factors, and 3) examine sex by developmental stage effects on risk factor–disorder associations. This study tests the specificity of putative psychosocial risk factors while addressing these criticisms.



Methods:  Eight waves of data from the Great Smoky Mountains Study (N = 1,420) were used, covering children in the community age 9–16 years old. Youth and one parent were interviewed up to seven times using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment, providing a total of 6,674 pairs of interviews. A wide range of putative neighborhood, school, peer, family, and child risk factors, and common and comorbid youth disorders were assessed.



Results:  The majority of putative risk factors were specific to one disorder or one disorder domain. A unique or ‘signature set’ of putative risk factors was identified for each disorder. Several putative risk factors were associated with a disorder in preadolescent males, preadolescent females, adolescent males, or adolescent females only.



Conclusions:  Our findings support the need to define risk factors and disorders narrowly, to control comorbidity and other risk factors, and to consider developmental patterns of specificity by sex.

Specificity of putative psychosocial risk factors for psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a debilitating and chronic illness characterized by persistent fear of one or more social or performance situations, with a relatively high life- time prevalence of 7% to 13% in the general population. Although the last two decades have witnessed enormous growth in the study of biological and dispositional factors underlying SAD, comparatively little attention has been directed towards environmental factors in SAD, even though there has been much ongoing work in the area. In this paper, we provide a recent review and critique of proposed environmental risk factors for SAD, focusing on traditional as well as some understudied and overlooked environmental risk factors: parenting and family environment, adverse life events, cultural and societal factors, and gender roles. We also discuss the need for research design improvements and considerations for future directions.

https://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=2146

Social anxiety disorder: a review of environmental risk factors.

/pdf/psykiske-lidelser-i-norge-et-folkehelseperspektiv-2nwr6o2xn5.pdf

Psykiske lidelser i Norge : et folkehelseperspektiv

https://www.childpsych.theclinics.com/article/S1056-4993(05)00063-5/pdf

Kathleen Ries Merikangas

Papers

Vulnerability factors for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents.