Abstract

Objectives: A growing number of life course studies are examining the influence of earlier life experiences on morbidity, disability, and mortality in mid-old age.

Method: Drawing from the social pathway model, this study expands the life course literature by utilizing data collected over 35 years from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, 1979 Cohort, spanning four life course phases (childhood, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late-middle adulthood). Through structural equation analyses with a phantom model, we estimated depressive symptoms in late middle age as a result of pathway effects starting with childhood socio-economic status (SES) which effect young adulthood and middle adulthood. The multi-pathway life course model includes three potential mediators of middle adulthood: health risk behaviors, social activity, and negative life events.

Results: We found limited support for a direct effect of childhood SES disadvantage on depressive symptoms in middle age. Instead, much of the effects of childhood SES on later-year depressive symptoms appear to be mediated by SES in young adulthood. Further, the long-term pathway is mediated through the influence of health risk behaviors and negative life events in middle adulthood.

Conclusion: Our findings do not propose this chain is permanent and irreversible; rather, this study highlights the possibility that interventions focused on promoting health behaviors and improving living conditions for people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds could help reduce the instance of depression in middle age and health outcomes along the life course could be improved.

摘要

目标：越来越多的生命历程研究正在检验早期生活经历对中老年发病率、残疾和死亡率的影响。

方_ - 中年）。通过使用幻像模型进行结构方程分析，我们估计了中年后期的抑郁症状，这是从童年社会经济地位 (SES) 开始影响青年期和中期的通路效应的结果。多路径生命历程模型包括中年期的三个潜在中介：健康风险行为、社会活动和消极生活事件。

结果：我们发现对儿童 SES 劣势对中年抑郁症状的直接影响的支持有限。相反，童年 SES 对晚年抑郁症状的大部分影响似乎是由成年早期的 SES 介导的。此外，长期路径是通过中年健康风险行为和负面生活事件的影响来调节的。

结论：我们的研究结果并不表明这条链是永久的和不可逆的；相反，这项研究强调了这样一种可能性，即侧重于促进社会经济弱势背景人群的健康行为和改善生活条件的干预措施可能有助于减少中年抑郁症的发生，并改善整个生命过程中的健康结果。