Browsing by Author "Taskinen, Anette"

Objectives: Socioeconomic status (SES) in childhood has been found to be in association with later mental disorders however, there has been less study into effects of durance and especially timing of socioeconomic status. Identifying risks related to timing of and cumulative SES can help target resources in preventative manner to those who need it the most. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between timing and cumulative SES in childhood and later mental health problems. Methods: Data of this study is part of Millenium Cohort Study collected in United Kingdom. Sample in this study was N=7226. Parents income when the cohort members were 9 months, 3, 5, and 7 years old was used as an indicator of socioeconomic position and later problems with mental health were assessed with Kesslers K6 and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire when the participants were 17 years old. Association between childhood socioeconomic position and later mental health problems was examined with logistic regression analysis. Results: Socioeconomic status during childhood in general was associated with mental health problems at the age of 17. The odds ratios had a downward trend; as the income level rose in both analysis of incomes separately at different ages as well as when looking at the cumulative income. In the former, especially in the lowest and second lowest income quantile there was a higher risk for later mental health problems compared to the highest income quantile. There was no difference in risks associated with income quantiles between different age stages, however some trends were observed. Cumulative socioeconomic status was mainly more strongly associated with risk of later mental health problems compared to risks when examining income at single stage. Conclusions. In this longitudinal study SES during childhood did not explain the magnitude of risk for mental health problems at the age of 17, but rather being a part of the lowest income quantiles was relevant despite the timing. In comparison the durance of SES was a better predictor of problems with mental health compared to SES at separate age stages. The risks associated with income levels were mostly bigger in earlier ages, but the confidence intervals for the odds ratios were large and the inter-rater reliability between the outcome measures was poor. In future studies these observations should be noted in the design of the study.