p38 inhibitor The associations we found between childhood

The associations we found between childhood wealth (as well as for childhood income and parent education) and serious psychological distress were limited to the upper 50% of the sample SES distribution. This result is seemingly at odds with previous research that has associated very low SES, along with attendant exposure to adverse experiences, with poor health (Kalmakis & Chandler, 2015; Pascoe et al., 2016). It is worth noting, however, that levels of wealth in our sample were low: median childhood wealth was $19,900 while median household wealth in the US in 2000 was close to $74,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2014). Therefore, the threshold for the associations we observed occurred at relatively low levels of wealth. It is also possible that our results are specific to the outcome of nonspecific psychological distress and life stage of our sample (young adulthood), which have not been previously examined. For example, the K-6 scale in this p38 inhibitor may capture distress primarily related to stressors associated with the transition to social and economic independence. There may be a threshold of familial socioeconomic resources that is required in order for them to be used to prevent or alleviate this distress. Future research should investigate potential differences by age in SES effects on specific aspects of mental health. Our analysis was subject to several limitations. Adjustment for childhood depressive symptoms in 2002 only slightly attenuated estimates for childhood wealth (data not shown), which provides some evidence that our results may not result from reverse causation. However, this measure of childhood mental health was available only on a subset of participants who were aged ≥ 10 years (n=3798; 77%), and who therefore had already experienced 10 years or more of the age span covered by our childhood wealth measure. Furthermore, the CDI-Short Form may not be the most relevant measure to capture childhood precursors to psychological distress as measured by the K-6 scale. Reverse causation may also have played a role in associations between participant education and the outcome. Our results may have been affected by measurement error, particularly because of the reliance on self-reported information. The K-6 scale, while validated and widely used, does not identify individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for specific mental illnesses. Future research using measures of incident mental illness can help strengthen the causal evidence for an effect of childhood wealth on mental health. Finally, our wealth measure did not distinguish between different longitudinal patterns of wealth that might result in the same cumulative average measure. Future research could consider how trajectories of SES, including wealth, throughout the lifespan influence mental health in young adulthood. Relatedly, household wealth shocks, such as those experienced by many American families during the 2007–2009 Great Recession (Pfeffer, Danziger, & Schoeni, 2013), may have implications for the future mental health of children growing up in these households. Strengths of our analysis include the use of in-depth, prospectively collected wealth information, the national scope and racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the sample, and the use of a validated mental health screening scale. Another potentially fruitful area of research is the role of lack of childhood wealth as a source of underlying vulnerability, predisposing individuals to more serious mental health consequences of exposure to stressors. It may therefore be elucidative to investigate modification by childhood wealth of associations between stressors and mental health. Relatedly, family wealth may help explain or modify racial/ethnic health disparities (Pollack et al., 2013), given stark racial/ethnic inequalities in wealth and intergenerational wealth transfers (Keister & Moller, 2000; Oliver & Shapiro, 1995).
Funding The collection of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics data used in this study was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health (Grant R01 HD069609) and the National Science Foundation (Award 1157698).