Both childhood and adult perceived financial strain impact age trajectories of change in emotional health in late adulthood.

Abstract

Objectives: Socioeconomic status impacts emotional health outcomes, but a lifecourse approach is necessary to understand the timing of these effects. The current analyses examined the impact of financial strain in childhood and adulthood on longitudinal changes in three measures of emotional health: depressive symptoms, loneliness, and anxiety.

Method: Data were from 1596 adults from the Swedish Twin Registry, aged 45 to 98 at intake (mean = 72.6) who participated in up to 9 waves over 25 years. Measures of financial strain (FS) included questions about how well finances met family needs. Latent growth curve models (LGCM) were used to estimate the impact of childhood and adult FS on changes in emotional health.

Results: Results indicated that both childhood and adult FS independently influenced trajectories of emotional health in mid to late adulthood. For all 3 emotional health variables, both childhood and adult FS were associated with the LGCM intercept and childhood FS was associated with linear change with age. Interaction effects of childhood and adult FS were found for the LGCM intercept for loneliness, only.

Conclusion: Results corroborate the accumulation of risk models, with effects of both childhood and adult FS on emotional health, and possible social mobility effects for loneliness.