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Abstract
Objectives: This study examined the relationship between childhood mental health conditions and incident major depression in middle-aged and older adults.
Methods: This longitudinal panel study used 12 years of data from 27,220 adults aged 51 and older in the U.S. Health and Retirement Study. Childhood mental health conditions were assessed retrospectively with a question about having a depression, drug/alcohol, or other emotional problem before age 16. Cox regression was used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs).
Results: Childhood mental health conditions were reported by 6.04% of the unweighted sample (n = 1643) and were associated with a more than 2-fold higher hazard of major depression after adjusting for both childhood and adulthood factors (HR = 2.63; 95% CI: 2.38–2.90; p < 0.001). This main effect was stronger for adults with higher educational attainment, higher net wealth, and for non-Hispanic Black adults, compared with adults without a high school diploma, lower wealth, and non-Hispanic White adults. The association was weaker among those with greater adverse childhood experiences, lifetime trauma, and adulthood chronic disease burden, compared with those with less of these exposures.
Conclusion: Childhood mental health condition has long-lasting consequences for depression risk in later life.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2026.2648689
Funding Information
XX’s effort is partially supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH137064) at the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grant number 90IFRE0097).
Repository Citation
Xiang, Xiaoling; Wang, Xiafei; Zhang, Xinyin; and Abrials, Josephine, "Childhood mental health and major depression in later life: a survival analysis across 12 years" (2026). Social Work Faculty Publications. 29.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/csw_facpub/29
Notes/Citation Information
© 2026 the Author(s). Published by informa UK limited, trading as taylor & Francis group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-nonCommercial-noDerivatives license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. the terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.