Childhood poverty and neglect show stronger links to teen depression than bullying

A new study published in Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences indicates that children whose parents faced adversity during their own childhoods are more likely to experience depression and anxiety as adolescents. The study also provides evidence that children who grow up in environments marked by deprivation, such as financial stress or parental neglect, face even higher risks. These risks tend to persist throughout adolescence, while experiences involving threat, such as bullying or exposure to violence, appear to have a stronger impact at younger ages.

Adversity in childhood, including neglect, abuse, and family dysfunction, can have long-lasting effects on mental health. These adverse experiences, commonly referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences, have been linked to a wide range of outcomes including depression and anxiety. However, most of the existing research focuses on the direct effects of adversity on children, often treating all types of adversity as having equal weight. Less is known about how adversity experienced by parents might influence their children’s mental health, especially when those children face their own difficulties.

“There is a growing recognition that childhood maltreatment and household adversities can have long-term effects not only in one’s life course but also on the future generations,” said study author Santosh Giri, a PhD Candidate at the Rural Health Research Institute at Charles Sturt University.

“We wanted to expand this area of research by exploring how parental past traumatic events could lead to mental disorders in children during adolescence. Additionally, the age of 12-17 years provides us a window of opportunity to changes one’s life course, some might go downhill and develop mental disorders, substance abuse and even suicide, while others might prosper their education and life. We wanted to know what can be done to help children coping with adversities to have a better life.”

The researchers analyzed data from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a national study that has followed a large group of children from early childhood through adolescence. For this project, they focused on over 3,000 children who were surveyed at ages 12–13, 14–15, and 16–17. Parents also provided information about their own childhood experiences, including whether they had faced poverty, abuse, or family dysfunction.

To evaluate the impact of adversity, the researchers grouped children’s experiences into two categories. Threat-related adversities included being bullied, witnessing violence, and experiencing harsh or hostile parenting. Deprivation-related adversities included family poverty, parental mental illness or substance abuse, neglect, or a lack of emotional support. These categories were based on earlier psychological frameworks that suggest different types of adversity affect brain development in different ways.

The mental health of the adolescents was measured using standard questionnaires for depression and anxiety. Adolescents completed these surveys themselves when they reached the target ages. The researchers then looked for patterns linking parental and childhood adversity to symptoms of depression and anxiety.

The researchers found that by the age of 17, nearly one in three adolescents showed signs of depression, and nearly one in ten reported significant symptoms of anxiety. Children whose parents had experienced at least two forms of adversity during their own childhoods were about 40 percent more likely to experience depression at age 12–13 and about 20 percent more likely by age 16–17, compared to children of parents without such a background.

Exposure to deprivation-related adversity had an even stronger impact. Children who had faced two or more forms of deprivation were more than twice as likely to experience depression at age 12–13. This elevated risk persisted into later adolescence, with these children still showing a 30 percent higher risk of depression by age 16–17. In contrast, children exposed to multiple forms of threat were twice as likely to report depression at age 12–13, but this pattern did not continue at older ages.

“We were surprised to find that deprivation-related experiences such as financial strain or lack of emotional and social support had more consistent and long-lasting associations with depression than threat-related experiences like bullying or family conflict, with the effect particularly appearing at the ages 16-17,” Giri told PsyPost. “This suggests that the chronic absence of key resources during the entire childhood may be just as damaging, or even more so, than exposure to threat, especially when the child is aged 16-17 and that interventions should address both forms of adversity in right age-group of vulnerability.”

The study also looked at anxiety symptoms. While no single factor showed a consistently strong effect, children with histories of deprivation were more likely to experience anxiety between ages 14 and 17. Exposure to threat-related adversity also increased the risk of anxiety, especially around age 14–15.

The research team explored whether children’s own adversities might intensify the effects of their parents’ earlier experiences, but no clear interaction effects were found. This suggests that while both parental and childhood adversity matter, they may contribute to mental health risks in independent ways.

The study also found that adolescent girls were consistently more likely to report depression and anxiety than boys. Children born to younger mothers or from socioeconomically disadvantaged households also had elevated mental health risks. These findings suggest that multiple risk factors often cluster together, creating more serious challenges for some families.

“Families with children aged 17 or younger need to consider being aware of their children’s mental health status,” Giri explained. “Our study found that the prevalence of depression rises from 11% at ages 12–13 to 30% at ages 16–17, and anxiety increases from 5% to 10% over the same period. Children from dysfunctional households or those who have experienced abuse and neglect are more likely to develop symptoms of depression or anxiety between the ages of 12 and 17.”

“This can be prevented with early intervention that begins as early as age 10 or 12. It is important to address unresolved trauma among parents, and children raised in deprived environments should be considered at risk for depression during adolescence. Healthcare practitioners and policymakers need to recognize that supporting parents who have experienced adversity or who are facing mental health or substance use issues, along with addressing stress at the family level, could play an important role in tackling the growing mental health burden and rising suicide rates among teenagers.”

While the study provides strong evidence linking early-life adversity to adolescent mental health, the authors noted some limitations. Many of the measures relied on parents recalling their own childhoods or reporting their children’s experiences. This could lead to inaccuracies, especially if parents underreported or forgot traumatic events. The study also did not include certain types of adversity, such as physical or sexual abuse, due to data limitations.

Future research may focus on identifying protective factors that help some children thrive despite exposure to adversity. The authors are particularly interested in studying how supportive relationships, cultural identity, and community engagement might buffer against the effects of trauma. Long-term, they hope their work can inform trauma-informed approaches that support both parents and children.

“Some of the early life adversities, such as extreme poverty, are less modifiable with short term interventions, while others such as neglect, are more modifiable with family-centred parenting interventions,” Giri noted. “Our study does not shed light on which one’s is more important than other, but we now know that long-term deprivations are more relevant for developing depression symptoms during adolescence while short term threats are more relevant for anxiety during the period. We suggest following socioecological model of child health, which will highlight addressing all early life deprivations including socio-economic harms, as well as parenting practices through multi-component interventions. State and national government spending on this is crucial.”

“We plan to investigate resilience factors such as supportive relationships, community connectedness, and cultural identity that may help protect against the intergenerational effects of adversity. Ultimately, we hope our research will inform trauma-informed and family-centred prevention programs that can promote wellbeing across generations.

“We are deeply grateful to the families who participated in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children,” Giri added. “Their continued involvement helps us better understand how early experiences shape wellbeing over time and provides vital evidence to guide public health policy and mental health services in Australia.”

The study, “The effects of parental adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and childhood threat and deprivation on adolescent depression and anxiety: an analysis of the longitudinal study of Australian children,” was authored by Santosh Giri, Nancy Ross, Rachel Kornhaber, Kedir Y. Ahmed, and Subash Thapa.