The moderating effect of recent positive and negative life events on the impact of early life stress on mental wellbeing and distress

Abstract

Early life stress (ELS) significantly influences mental health in later stages of life. Yet it is unclear whether recent life events lessen or intensify the effects of ELS on present wellbeing and distress. We addressed this question in 1064 healthy community adults with a normative range of wellbeing and distress. We tested whether recent daily life events (DLE), occurring in the 12 months prior to assessment, moderated the association between effects of past ELS on present wellbeing and distress. Principal components analysis was first used on both ELS and DLE to determine the event types loading together on components. For wellbeing, we observed associations with the ELS component ‘family conflict’, and DLE components ‘positive work changes’, ‘positive lifestyle changes’, ‘vacation’, and ‘negative work changes’. There was no evidence of these DLEs moderating the relationship between ELS and wellbeing. For distress, we found associations with three ELS components, ‘interpersonal violence’, ‘personal health trauma’, and ‘peer conflict’, of which ‘interpersonal violence’ showed an interaction with two negative DLE components – ‘relationship problems’ and ‘sexual/pregnancy difficulties’. These findings suggest that the pervasive impact of interpersonal violence (childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse) on psychological distress is further compounded by maladaptive relationships in adulthood, which lead to higher distress; however, for wellbeing, the effects of ELS and DLE are independent. Our findings indicate a complex pattern of associations between life events and mental health, and highlight the importance of examining both wellbeing and distress outcomes, which may vary depending on the associations between early and recent life events.