Adolescent mental health has implications for current and future wellbeing. While a link exists between poverty and mental health, little is known about how experiencing material hardship, such as insecurity of food, housing, utilities, and medical care, throughout early childhood affects adolescent mental health. We examine the relationship between material hardship in childhood and adolescent mental health. We use Poisson regression to examine the effect of material hardship experienced at different stages of childhood on adolescent depression and anxiety outcomes at age 15. We use longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3,222). We find that recently experiencing material hardship during childhood is positively and significantly associated with anxiety and depression symptoms at age 15, even when controlling for material hardship at age 15. Additionally, we find that insecurity during mid-childhood and the stress of lacking basic needs during a critical age may influence mental health in adolescence.

青少年的心理健康对当前和未来的健康都有影响。尽管贫困与心理健康之间存在联系，但对于整个儿童早期经历的物质困难（如食物，住房，公用事业和医疗服务的不安全状况）如何影响青少年的心理健康知之甚少。我们研究了儿童时期的物质困难与青少年心理健康之间的关系。我们使用Poisson回归来检验在儿童期不同阶段经历的物质困难对15岁时青少年抑郁和焦虑结局的影响。我们使用来自脆弱家庭和儿童健康研究的纵向数据（N = 3,222）。我们发现，即使在控制15岁时的物质困难时，最近在儿童时期经历的物质困难也正与15岁时的焦虑和抑郁症状显着正相关，此外，我们发现儿童中期的不安全感和缺乏基本需求的压力在危急年龄可能会影响青春期的心理健康。