Professional Documents
Culture Documents
adversity
Barbara Maughan
MRC SGDP, King’s College London
Institute of Psychiatry
Continuities in disorder / distress and
‘maladjustment’
Challenges
• many adversities overlap
• confounding
• distal vs proximal effects
community
school
family
material
SES parents child parenting
circs
peers
neighbourhood
culture
community
school
family
material
SES parents child parenting
circs
peers
neighbourhood
culture
community
school
family
material
SES parents child parenting circs
peers
neighbourhood
culture
Which aspects of early environment
most salient?
Challenges
• many adversities overlap
• confounding
• distal vs proximal effects
Versus…
• Child effects:
children’s genetically-influenced
behaviour problems elicit negative EE
The MZ twin receiving more maternal negativism at age 5
has more behaviour problems at age 7, according to teachers
9
8
7
Sample mean
Teacher Ratings
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
MZ twin w/ more negativism MZ twin w/ less negativism
Maternal Negativism
• Environmental continuities
– increased risk exposure later in life
• Disorder / pathogenic processes in
childhood
– long-term health sequelae
• Development of ‘health capital’ -
biological, psychological & social
– resilience / vulnerability to later risk
Developmental-contextual
model of
psychosocial adjustment: BCS70
CHILDHOOD ADULTHOOD
CHILDHOOD ADULTHOOD
• Environmental continuities
– increased risk exposure later in life
• Psychological vulnerabilities
– dysfunctional views of self & relationships
– coping styles
• Physical effects
– chronic exposure to early stress effects on
• cardiovascular system, immune system, neurobiological
functioning
Some pathways for effects of early
psychosocial adversity
• Specificity?
• Timing?
– not confined to early childhood
• Individual differences in response
– gene- environment interplay
– genetic factors influence sensitivity to environmental
risk
– experiences influence gene expression