ArticleBMJ open2013
Childhood happiness and violence: a retrospective study of their impacts on adult well-being.
Article in BMJ open, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impact of Positive Childhood Experiences: A Systematic Review Focused on Children and Adolescents.Trauma, violence & abuse · 2026Pooled it
- Teacher Violence and Student Wellbeing in Rural Sierra Leone: Longitudinal Dynamics Across Primary Schooling.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A preliminary examination of the effects of childhood abuse and resilience on pain and physical functioning in patients with knee osteoarthritis.Scandinavian journal of pain · 2024Article
- Childhood adversity and health: The mediating roles of emotional expression and general trust.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Can Prior Sexual Abuse Explain Global Differences in Measured Self-Esteem in Male and Female Adolescents?Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Adverse Childhood Experiences, Domestic Violence and Substance Misuse: An Action Research Study on Routine Enquiry and Practice Responses.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Are Positive Childhood Experiences Linked to Better Cognitive Functioning in Later Life?: Examining the Role of Life Course Pathways.Journal of aging and health · 2021Article
- Factors Affecting Happiness Among Rural Residents: A Cross Sectional Survey.Community mental health journal · 2020Article
- The role of attention in the relationship between early life stress and depression.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Subjective Health and Happiness in the United States: Gender Differences in the Effects of Socioeconomic Status Indicators.Journal of mental health & clinical psychology · 2020Article
- Article
- Relationships between adverse childhood experiences and adult mental well-being: results from an English national household survey.BMC public health · 2016Article
- Impact of childhood experience and adult well-being on eating preferences and behaviours.BMJ open · 2016Article
- Pathways to Well-Being in Later Life: Socioeconomic and Health Determinants Across the Life Course of Australian Baby Boomers.Journal of population ageing · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo examine the hypothesis that adult well-being is related to childhood experiences independent of current adult sociodemographic conditions.
designA cross-sectional, stratified, randomised sample survey using self-assessed measures of current well-being and retrospective measures of childhood experiences.
settingHouseholds in North West England (September 2012-March 2013).
participantsThe individual with the next birthday in randomly selected households (n=11 500; compliance 89.6% of eligible households). Analysis was limited to those aged ≥18 years and answering all pertinent questions (n=11 157). OUTCOMES: The primary outcome was a validated multicomponent measure of mental well-being (MWB). Additional outcomes included self-assessed life satisfaction (LS), life worth and trust in others.
resultsAdult MWB, LS, life worth and trust were all significantly related to childhood violence and happiness. Relationships remained after controlling for sociodemographics. Thus, compared with those with happy, non-violent childhoods, respondents with unhappy, violent childhoods had adjusted ORs (95% CI, significance) of 3.10 (2.59 to 3.71, p<0.001) for low MWB, 3.62 (2.99 to 4.38, p<0.001) for low LS, 4.13 (3.40 to 5.01, p<0.001) for low life worth and 2.62 (2.20 to 3.11, p<0.001) for low trust. The impact of unhappy but non-violent childhoods were smaller but significant (p<0.001). The modelled impact of childhood factors predicted, for instance, that among unemployed white men aged 25-39 years from the most deprived communities, 27% of those with happy non-violent childhoods would have low MWB rising to 53% of those with unhappy violent childhoods.
conclusionsAdult well-being is strongly linked to childhood experiences. The addition of well-being measures to outcomes already associated with adverse childhoods (eg, adolescent antisocial behaviour and risks of adult disease) strengthens the case for investment in interventions to improve childhood experiences. Public health systems are well placed to ensure that policy to improve adult well-being exploits the potential for this to be realised through appropriate interventions.
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