Childhood adversities and home atmosphere as determinants of resilience in old age: findings from the Helsinki birth cohort study

Abstract

Early life stress has far-reaching effects on various aspects of well-being in later life, but whether it impacts resilience, i.e., the ability to tolerate hardship, in old age remains unclear. We investigated whether childhood adversities and childhood home atmosphere are associated with resilience in old age directly or indirectly through poorer physical and psychological functioning in late middle age. The data comprised 1176 persons born in 1934-1944 and were collected over a 17-year follow-up in 2001-2018. Childhood adversities (greater score indicates more adversities) and home atmosphere (greater score indicates better atmosphere) were assessed retrospectively. Resilience in old age was measured with the Hardy-Gill Resilience Scale, depressive symptoms in late middle age with the Beck Depression Inventory, and hand grip strength in late middle age with a dynamometer. Data were analyzed with path modeling with depressive symptoms and grip strength set as mediators. We found that a greater number of childhood adversities and a poorer home atmosphere were associated with poorer resilience in old age (β = - .13; p < .001 and β = .11, p < .001, respectively). These associations were fully mediated by depressive symptoms, but not hand grip strength, in late middle age. The findings indicate that adverse childhood exposures may decrease psychological functioning in middle age, and subsequently, lessen resilience in old age. Future studies should assess whether this pathway can be intervened.

Keywords: Coping; Depressive symptoms; Grip strength; Mediation model; Positive adaptation.

Fig. 1

The conceptual model for the mediation analysis with depressive symptoms and handgrip strength in late middle age set as mediators of the associations between childhood adversities, childhood home atmosphere (predictors), and resilience in old age (outcome). Note: Additionally, the model included sex, age at baseline, marital status at follow-up, and stressfulness of an adverse event at follow-up as covariates

Fig. 2

Standardized parameter estimates and 95% confidence intervals for the associations in the adjusted mediation path model. Note: Statistically significant associations are marked in bold arrows and non-significant associations are in dashed arrows. The model was adjusted for sex, age at baseline, marital status at follow-up, and stressfulness of an adverse event at follow-up. R.² = 0.29. Fit indices for the model: (χ2(12) = 18.298, p = .0816; RMSEA = .023; CFI = .995; TLI = .990; and SRMR = .023)