Tracing the lifelong effects of early life stress on health: evidence over 50 years

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the long-term detrimental effects of early stressful life experiences on physical and cognitive health outcomes in later adulthood, with a particular focus on the mediating role of psychological processes across the life course. METHODS: We used multigenerational data from the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG; N = 561) and applied structural equation modeling to examine the long-term associations between early stressful life experiences (1971-1985) and later health outcomes (2021), with depressive symptoms and self-esteem across adulthood (1994, 1997, 2000, 2005, and 2016) as mediators. RESULTS: Early stressful life experiences predicted higher depressive symptoms, which in turn were associated with poorer physical health, greater limitation in physical functioning, and greater perceived health decline in later adulthood, supporting depression as a key life-course mediator. Self-esteem was not associated with early stressful experiences. CONCLUSION: Early stressful life experiences and adverse family circumstances have lasting detrimental effects on health, primarily through persistently elevated depressive symptoms across adulthood, increasing vulnerability to physical and cognitive health problems in later life. By integrating contemporaneous reports from individuals and their mothers collected nearly 50 years ago, this study provides unique life-course evidence linking early stress to later-life health.