Activity: Talks or Presentations › Other Invited Talks or Presentations
Description
: Childhood adversity has been proven to result in various poor outcomes including depression. Most studies examined the impact of these events on adolescents and young adults, leaving a lack of information regarding how it may affect the elderly. Using data from Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) in 2018, we examine the effect of childhood adversity on mental health in later years. To proxy childhood adversity, we focus on the experiences of starvation in childhood. We find that older adults who experienced starvation in childhood had higher odds of having depressive and anxiety symptoms. We also find a more significant effect on the younger cohort. This finding is robust to alternative ways of measuring childhood adversity.