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The association of chronic adversity with psychiatric disorder and disorder severity in adolescents

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of chronic adversity on psychopathology in adolescents, taking into account the type of adversity, number of adversities experienced and type of psychiatric disorder, as well as to estimate the impact on severity of the disorder. A total of 3,005 male and female adolescents from the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey aged 12–17 years were interviewed in a stratified multistage general population probability survey. Assessment of 20 DSM-IV disorders, disorder severity and 12 chronic childhood adversities were assessed with the adolescent version of the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI-A). Family dysfunction adversities including abuse presented the most consistent associations between chronic adversity and psychopathology and their impact was generally non-specific with regard to the type of disorder. Parental divorce, parental death and economic adversity were not individually associated with psychopathology. Among those with a psychiatric disorder, sexual abuse and family violence were associated with having a seriously impairing disorder. The odds of having a psychiatric disorder and a serious disorder increased with increasing numbers of adversities; however, each additional adversity increased the odds at a decreasing rate. While the study design does not allow for conclusions regarding causality, these findings suggest general pathways from family dysfunction to psychopathology rather than specific associations between particular adversities and particular disorders, and provide further evidence for the importance of family-focused intervention and prevention efforts.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Council on Science and Technology in conjunction with the Ministry of Education (Grant No. CONACYT-SEP-SSEDF-2003-CO1-22), and CONACYT (Grant No. CB2006-01-60678) allowed for continued analyses of adversity. The survey was carried out in conjunction with the World Health Organization World Mental Health (WMH) Survey Initiative. We thank the WMH staff for assistance with instrumentation, fieldwork and data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiological and Psychosocial Research, National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente, Calzada México Xochimilco 101, Colonia San Lorenzo Huipulco, Mexico City, 14370, Mexico

    Corina Benjet, Guilherme Borges, Enrique Méndez, Clara Fleiz & Maria Elena Medina-Mora

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  1. Corina Benjet
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  2. Guilherme Borges
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  3. Enrique Méndez
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  5. Maria Elena Medina-Mora
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Correspondence to Corina Benjet.

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Benjet, C., Borges, G., Méndez, E. et al. The association of chronic adversity with psychiatric disorder and disorder severity in adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 20, 459–468 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-011-0199-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-011-0199-8

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