Childhood poverty and neglect increase the risk for mental and cardiovascular problems

Children and teenagers who grew up in adverse conditions, such as poverty, neglectserious family illnesses or deaths, problematic parental relationships, etc., face an increased risk of becoming victims of bullying (“bullying”), as well as mental and cardiovascular problems before and after they reach adulthood, show two new scientific studies, a British and a Danish one.

The first investigation by Cambridge University psychologists, which was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, studied nearly 13,000 11-year-old children. Those who came from poor families or felt poorer than their peers had 6% to 8% lower self-esteem and 11% less satisfaction with their lives, while they were 17% more likely to be victims of verbal or physical violence, have anxiety, internalized anger or hyperactivity; At age 14, the child who continued to feel poorer was 8% more likely to be victimized.

The research emphasizes the importance of socio-economic comparison especially at the beginning of adolescence, as in this phase the child forms his sense of self (how popular he is, how much he is liked, where he is advantaged and where he lags behind, how much he feels like a member of a group, etc. .a.). Best for both mental health and social behavior, according to the study, is a child to have a sense of economic equality with his friends and classmates, and even children who feel richer are more likely to bully others and have other behavioral problems.

“Many studies have shown that young people who objectively come from disadvantaged family environments have more mental difficulties. Our findings suggest that the subjective experience of disadvantage also plays a role. “You don’t have to be really rich or poor to feel richer or poorer than your friends, and this affects the mental health of young teenagers,” said researcher Pierre Pi-Sunier.

The second studythe largest of its kind to date, led by professor of epidemiology Nadja Hulvej Rodd of the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen, which was published in the European Heart Journal of the European Society of Cardiology, analyzed data on nearly 1.3 million children, of whom 4,118 had been diagnosed with CVD by age 16.

It was found that those who had experienced bad family conditions and traumatic events (severe illness of a relative such as cancer, death, poverty, abandonment by a parent, dysfunctional and stressful relationships in the family, etc.), faced a significantly greater early cardiovascular risk, by approximately 60% increased compared to their peers without such problematic backgrounds.

See the first and second scientific publications

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