TY - JOUR
T1 - Childhood socioeconomic circumstances and depressive symptom burden across 15 years of follow-up during midlife
T2 - Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN)
AU - Bromberger, Joyce T.
AU - Schott, Laura L.
AU - Matthews, Karen A.
AU - Kravitz, Howard M.
AU - Harlow, Siobán D.
AU - Montez, Jennifer Karas
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria.
PY - 2017/8/1
Y1 - 2017/8/1
N2 - Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to adult depression. Understanding pathways by which early socioeconomic adversity may shape adult depression is important for identifying areas for intervention. Studies to date have focused on one potential pathway, adult socioeconomic status (SES), and assessed depression at only one or a few time points. Our aims were to examine (a) the association between childhood SES (low vs. high) and depressive symptom burden in midlife and (b) whether adult socioeconomic, psychosocial, and physical health characteristics are important pathways. Using annual data from a cohort of 1109 black and white US women recruited in 1996–1997, we evaluated the association between childhood SES and depressive symptom burden across 15 years in midlife and whether adult characteristics—financial difficulty, lower education, stressful events, low social support, low role functioning, medical conditions, and bodily pain—mediated the association. Depressive symptom burden was estimated by calculating area under the curve of annual scores across 15 years of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D). In unadjusted models, low childhood SES was associated with greater depressive burden (P = 0.0002). Each hypothesized mediator, individually, did not reduce the association. However, when five of the hypothesized mediators were included together in the same analysis, they explained more than two thirds of the association between childhood SES and depressive symptom burden reducing the P value for childhood SES to non-significance (P = 0.20). These results suggest that childhood SES influences midlife depressive symptom burden through a cluster of economic stress, limited social resources, and physical symptoms in adulthood.
AB - Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to adult depression. Understanding pathways by which early socioeconomic adversity may shape adult depression is important for identifying areas for intervention. Studies to date have focused on one potential pathway, adult socioeconomic status (SES), and assessed depression at only one or a few time points. Our aims were to examine (a) the association between childhood SES (low vs. high) and depressive symptom burden in midlife and (b) whether adult socioeconomic, psychosocial, and physical health characteristics are important pathways. Using annual data from a cohort of 1109 black and white US women recruited in 1996–1997, we evaluated the association between childhood SES and depressive symptom burden across 15 years in midlife and whether adult characteristics—financial difficulty, lower education, stressful events, low social support, low role functioning, medical conditions, and bodily pain—mediated the association. Depressive symptom burden was estimated by calculating area under the curve of annual scores across 15 years of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D). In unadjusted models, low childhood SES was associated with greater depressive burden (P = 0.0002). Each hypothesized mediator, individually, did not reduce the association. However, when five of the hypothesized mediators were included together in the same analysis, they explained more than two thirds of the association between childhood SES and depressive symptom burden reducing the P value for childhood SES to non-significance (P = 0.20). These results suggest that childhood SES influences midlife depressive symptom burden through a cluster of economic stress, limited social resources, and physical symptoms in adulthood.
KW - Childhood socioeconomic status (SES)
KW - Depressive symptom burden
KW - Economic stress
KW - Longitudinal
KW - Midlife women
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U2 - 10.1007/s00737-017-0747-4
DO - 10.1007/s00737-017-0747-4
M3 - Article
C2 - 28660469
AN - SCOPUS:85024373315
SN - 1434-1816
VL - 20
SP - 495
EP - 504
JO - Archives of Women's Mental Health
JF - Archives of Women's Mental Health
IS - 4
ER -