Poster #32 - Dynamic Developmental Process from Childhood Adversities to General Psychopathology among South Korean Youth

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

Research indicates internalizing and externalizing symptoms often co-occur in adolescence, which is evidence for the presence of general psychopathology (GPP) as a shared construct underlying both types of symptoms (Caspi et al., 2014). Identifying risk factors of adolescent GPP is important because adolescent GPP is strongly linked to psychiatric disorders in adulthood (Patalay et al., 2015). For instance, research demonstrated exposure to childhood adversities (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantage, maltreatment) increases the risk of adolescent GPP (Moffitt et al., 2007). However, less is known the longitudinal mechanisms that implicate childhood adversities in adolescent GPP. Given a large proportion of current Korean adolescents experienced adversities in childhood (Ryu et al., 2017), these processes can be easily examined in Korean samples. The stress proliferation perspective (Pearlin et al., 1997) suggests that stressors at one life stage lead to additional stressors at later developmental stages which, in turn, predict mental/physical health. In view of this perspective, childhood adversities may cause adolescent adversities leading to adolescent GPP (Lee et al., 2017). The first aim of the study is to examine mediational processes of childhood adversities on GPP through adolescent adversities. Further, the stress-sensitization perspective (McLaughlin et al., 2010) posits that early exposure to stressors amplifies reactions to later stressors by increasing sensitivity to stressors. Thus, it is expected adolescent adversities have stronger impact on GPP for adolescents who experienced more childhood adversities than those with lesser/no childhood adversities. The second aim of this study is to examine multiplicative effects between childhood and adolescent adversities on GPP. The hypothesized model is shown in Figure 1.
We used data from 661 households in waves 1, 4, and 7 of the Korean Welfare Panel Study (mean child age = 10.10 years at wave 1; 47.2% female). Childhood and adolescent adversities were measured at wave 1 and 4 from 6 indicators respectively. All responses were dichotomized and summed to create an index of childhood/adolescence adversities (Wickrama et al., 2016). Adolescent GPP was measured at wave 7 as a factor score of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Aim 1 was addressed by testing an indirect effect of childhood adversities on GPP through adolescent adversities. For Aim 2, a regression analysis was conducted to examine multiplicative effects between childhood and adolescent adversities. For the model specification, childhood adversities, adolescence adversities, and their product term between adversities were entered as predictors of GPP. All analyses were conducted in Mplus.
Direct effect of childhood adversities on GPP was not significant. However, childhood adversities indirectly influenced GPP through adolescent adversities (β= .07; p < .001). The significant interaction between childhood and adolescent adversities suggests that childhood adversities increase susceptibility to adolescent adversities (β=.14, p < .05). As post-hoc tests, we examined whether mediation or interaction effect differs depending on types of adversities. For example, we found two significant interaction effects: (a) childhood maltreatment × adolescent maltreatment (β=.10, p ≤ .05), (b) childhood family dysfunction × adolescent peer relationship difficulties (β=.09, p ≤ .05). Findings contribute to identifying vulnerable sub-populations that need intervention in childhood and adolescence.

Authors

• Seo Woo Lee
  Presenting Author

• Tae Kyoung Lee, Sungkyunkwan University

• Catherine O'Neal