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. 2010 Nov;197(5):378-85.
doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.110.080499.

Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Ronald C Kessler  1 , Katie A McLaughlin, Jennifer Greif Green, Michael J Gruber, Nancy A Sampson, Alan M Zaslavsky, Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, Ali Obaid Alhamzawi, Jordi Alonso, Matthias Angermeyer, Corina Benjet, Evelyn Bromet, Somnath Chatterji, Giovanni de Girolamo, Koen Demyttenaere, John Fayyad, Silvia Florescu, Gilad Gal, Oye Gureje, Josep Maria Haro, Chi-Yi Hu, Elie G Karam, Norito Kawakami, Sing Lee, Jean-Pierre Lépine, Johan Ormel, José Posada-Villa, Rajesh Sagar, Adley Tsang, T Bedirhan Ustün, Svetlozar Vassilev, Maria Carmen Viana, David R Williams
Affiliations

Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys

Ronald C Kessler et al. Br J Psychiatry. 2010 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Although significant associations of childhood adversities with adult mental disorders are widely documented, most studies focus on single childhood adversities predicting single disorders.

Aims: To examine joint associations of 12 childhood adversities with first onset of 20 DSM-IV disorders in World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys in 21 countries.

Method: Nationally or regionally representative surveys of 51 945 adults assessed childhood adversities and lifetime DSM-IV disorders with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI).

Results: Childhood adversities were highly prevalent and interrelated. Childhood adversities associated with maladaptive family functioning (e.g. parental mental illness, child abuse, neglect) were the strongest predictors of disorders. Co-occurring childhood adversities associated with maladaptive family functioning had significant subadditive predictive associations and little specificity across disorders. Childhood adversities account for 29.8% of all disorders across countries.

Conclusions: Childhood adversities have strong associations with all classes of disorders at all life-course stages in all groups of WMH countries. Long-term associations imply the existence of as-yet undetermined mediators.

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