The associations of childhood and adolescence psychosocial risks with social relations in midlife

Abstract

Abstract We examined whether the accumulation of psychosocial risk factors (socioeconomic risks, health behavioural risks, stressful life-events and psycho-emotional risks) in childhood and adolescence contributes to insufficient social relations (loneliness, frequency and heterogeneity of social contacts and social support) in adulthood participants from the longitudinal Young Finns Study with a 38-year follow-up ( N  = 1787, 56% female). Results from regression models indicated that a higher cumulative number of risks in childhood and adolescence was associated (1-SD increase) with higher loneliness (B = 0.32, 95% CI 0.19 ; 0.45), lower perceived social support (B=-0.32, 95% CI -0.45 ; -0.19), lower frequency of social contacts (B = 0.19, 0.06 ; 0.32), and lower heterogeneity in social contacts (B=-0.33, -0.47 ; -0.20) in midlife. Causal mediation analysis suggested that depressive symptoms partially mediate the relationship between cumulative childhood and adolescent psychosocial risks and adult social relations (mediation proportion range between 7% and 18%). Educational attainment mediated the relationship between cumulative psychosocial risk and social relations heterogeneity by 8%, while income mediated the association with loneliness, social support and social relations heterogeneity by 9% to 11%. In conclusion, this study underscores the potentially profound and lasting impact of psychosocial risks encountered during childhood and adolescence on social relations in adulthood.