Year: 2013
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The relationship between childhood and adulthood factors are complex and difficult to examine.Longitudinal and life course studies can give further insight about the multifactorial pathways between childhood and adulthood.The opportunity to use historical records in assessing the exposures gives additional information that recalled questionnaire-based data may not detect.The aim of this study was to investigate the role of social disadvantage in childhood, adverse childhood experiences, and emotional and behavioural problems in childhood using two sources of information -one collected in childhood by a nurse or a doctor who made home visits and saw children in school, and the other collected via adult recall of childhood adversities -with regard to binge drinking behaviour, blood pressure, all-cause, CVD and CHD morbidity and mortality in adulthood.The research was based on Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor study (KIDH) which is a cohort study having representative population-based sample of middle-aged Finnish men from eastern Finland (n=2682).The childhood data was available to 22% of men in the study I (n=698) and 35% of the men in the study II (n=952).Social disadvantage in childhood increased the risk of all-cause mortality and acute myocardial infarctions later in life.Poor social conditions and poor hygiene in childhood were also associated with higher odds of hypertension in adulthood.Adverse childhood experiences increased the odds of binge drinking behavior in adulthood.Behavioural problems in childhood increased the risk of all-cause and cancer death in adulthood.The results give some support to the hypothesis that behavioural problems in childhood could be manifested in the life course, through long-term risky lifestyle factors, such as smoking, which in turn increase the mortality risk in later life.The thesis emphasizes that childhood adversities have some persisting impact on adult wellbeing.
Author: Laura Kauhanen
Language: English
Topic: Child Abuse and Trauma
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3097640922