Traumatic experiences from early childhood go on to negatively affect adults well into middle age, reports a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Much of the connection between childhood stress and adult health is indirect, linked to unhealthy behaviors like smoking and drinking and weighs on body mass index and even socioeconomic status. However, there may still be a direct biological relationship between childhood trauma and adult health, which the scientists are still pursuing.
"These results come from a wider program of research where we're examining what we call the social and psychosocial environment," Michelle Kelly-Irving, a scientist at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research who co-authored the study, told The Verge. "So, how the social and psychosocial environment get under our skin from the earliest moments of life and lead us along health trajectories, which can explain health inequalities all across the life course."
[For more of this story, written by Kwame Opam, go to http://www.theverge.com/2015/2...life-adulthood-study]
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