Youth Adversity Linked to Depression and Anxiety Regardless of Background, New Study Finds

A new study, currently in preprint for BMC Psychology, finds that adverse experiences in youth are linked to higher rates of depression and anxiety symptoms. This was true regardless of gender, socioeconomic background, and ethnicity.

The current research, led by Laura Havers from Queen Mary University of London, additionally finds that support from parents and peers did not weaken this effect. While youth adversity had similar effects on depression and anxiety symptoms across all groups measured in the current work, participants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have adverse experiences. These findings add to the mountains of evidence linking environmental (rather than biological) factors to mental health struggles.

Contrary to previous research, the current work did not find that support from peers and parents could mitigate the negative mental health effects associated with adverse experiences in youth. The authors note that this difference may be due to the specific support factors they measured in the current research and warn that parental and peer support should not be dismissed as protective factors.

The authors write:

“The findings indicate that youth adversity has pervasive, detrimental effects on combined depression and anxiety symptoms across multiple intersectional positions. However, parental support and peer support did not broadly or uniformly account for these effects … Importantly, the current findings should not be interpreted as suggesting that parental and peer support are unimportant. Rather, they may demonstrate that other aspects of parental and peer support have a greater impact in buffering against the harmful effects of youth adversity on mental health than those considered in the current study.”