Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) I: Associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders

By J. Green, Katie A. McLaughlin, P. Berglund, M. Gruber, N. Sampson, Alan M. Zaslavsky, Ronald C. Kessler. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2010

2,138 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Context Although significant associations of childhood adversities (CAs) with adult mental disorders have been documented consistently in epidemiological surveys, these studies generally have examined only one CA per study. As CAs are highly clustered, this approach results in over-estimating the importance of individual CAs. Multivariate CA studies have been based on insufficiently complex models. Objective To examine the joint associations of 12 retrospectively reported CAs with first onset of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) using substantively complex multivariate models. Design Cross-sectional community survey with retrospective reports of CAs and lifetime DSM-IV disorders. Setting/Participants Nationally representative sample of 5,692 adults in the US household population. Intervention None Main Outcome Measures Lifetime prevalence of 20 DSM-IV anxiety, mood, disruptive behavior, and substance disorders assessed with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Results The CAs studied were highly prevalent and inter-correlated. CAs in a maladaptive family functioning (MFF) cluster (parental mental illness, substance disorder, and criminal behavior; family violence; physical abuse; sexual abuse; neglect) were the strongest correlates of disorder onset. The best-fitting model included terms for each type of CA, number of MFF CAs, and number of other CAs. Multiple MFF CAs had significant sub-additive associations with disorder onset. Little specificity was found for particular CAs with particular disorders. Associations declined in magnitude with life course stage and number of prior lifetime disorders, but increased with length of recall period. Simulations suggest that CAs are associated with 44.6% of all childhood-onset disorders and 25.9-32.0% of later-onset disorders. Conclusions The fact that associations increased with length of recall raises the possibility of recall bias inflating estimates. Even taking this into consideration, though, the results suggest that CAs have powerful and often sub-additive associations with onset of many types of largely primary mental disorders throughout the life course.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

Childhood Adversity and Neural Development: A Systematic Review (2019, background): “…for psychopathology among those who have experienced childhood adversity persists throughout adolescence and adulthood, and approximately one-third of all mental disorders worldwide are attributable to exposure to childhood adversity (Green et al. 2010, Kessler et al. 2010, McLaughlin et al. 2012).”
Childhood adversities and first onset of psychiatric disorders in a national sample of adolescents (2012, positive): “Several multivariate models were estimated using the modeling approach developed in earlier work on this topic.(4,16) Each model included dummy predictor variables for CAs and controls.”
Childhood Adversity and Neural Development: Deprivation and Threat as Distinct Dimensions of Early Experience (2014, background): “Evidence from opulation-based epidemiological studies indicates that childhood dversity is common and associated strongly with the subsequent nset of psychopathology not only in childhood, but also in adoescence and adulthood (Cohen et al., 2001; Green et al., 2010; essler et al., 1997; McLaughlin e”
Introduction to Interpersonal Acceptance-Rejection Theory (IPARTheory) and Evidence (2016, background): “In fact, according to Green et al. (2010) and Teicher and Samson (2016), child adversity/maltreatment is linked to 45% of the preventable causes of psychopathology in childhood.”
The p Factor: One General Psychopathology Factor in the Structure of Psychiatric Disorders? (2014, background): “Childhood maltreatment appears to be a risk factor in the history of patients having many different psychiatric outcomes, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, behavior disorders, and substance-use disorders (Green et al., 2010; Scott, Smith, & Ellis, 2010), as well as schizophrenia, psychosi”
Transdiagnostic Approaches to Mental Health Problems: Current Status and Future Directions (2020, background): “…the influence of environmental factors such as poverty, discrimination, loneliness, aversive parenting, and childhood trauma or maltreatment (Green et al., 2010; Käll et al., 2020; Keyes et al., 2012; Lehavot & Simoni, 2011; Sunderland et al., 2016; Wiggins, Mitchell, Hyde, & Monk, 2015),…”
Impacts of adverse childhood experiences on health, mental health, and substance use in early adulthood: a cohort study of an urban, minority sample in the U.S. (2013, background): “For example, participants who reported mental health and substance use problems may have been more disposed to remember potentially traumatic events from childhood, which could inflate associations between ACEs and study outcomes (Bernet & Stein, 1999; Green et al., 2010).”
The Role of Early Life Stress as a Predictor for Alcohol and Drug Dependence (2010, methodology): “Exposure to SLE is common in the general population; for example, a nationally representative US sample of 9,282 adults, The National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), reported that 53% of adults had experienced some kind of stressor before the age of 18 (Green et al. 2010), the most common be”
Effects of Early Life Stress on Cognitive and Affective Function: An Integrated Review of Human Literature (2010, background): “%) of disorders with childhood onset (Green et al. 2010).”
Schema Theory and Schema Therapy in Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Review (2011, background): “Indeed, the maladaptive childhood experiences that are considered causal to EMSs place individuals at risk not only for Axis II disorders, but also for the full range of psychological disorders, with little specificity (Green et al., 2010).”