Both Childhood and Adult Perceived Financial Strain Impact Age Trajectories of Change in Emotional Health in Late Adulthood

<p dir="ltr">OBJECTIVES: Socioeconomic status impacts emotional health outcomes, but a lifecourse<br>approach is necessary to understand the timing of these effects. The current analyses examined<br>the impact of financial strain in childhood and adulthood on longitudinal changes in 3 measures<br>of emotional health: depressive symptoms, loneliness, and anxiety.<br>METHODS: Data were from 1596 adults from the Swedish Twin Registry, aged 45 to 98 at intake<br>(mean = 72.6) who participated in up to 9 waves over 25 years. Measures of financial strain (FS)<br>included questions about how well finances met family needs. Latent growth curve models<br>(LGCM) were used to estimate the impact of childhood and adult FS on changes in emotional<br>health.<br>RESULTS: Results indicated that both childhood and adult FS independently influenced<br>trajectories of emotional health in mid to late adulthood. For all 3 emotional health variables,<br>both childhood and adult FS were associated with the LGCM intercept and childhood FS was<br>associated with linear change with age. Interaction effects of childhood and adult FS were found<br>for the LGCM intercept for loneliness, only.<br>CONCLUSION: Results corroborate accumulation of risk models, with effects of both childhood<br>and adult FS on emotional health, and possible social mobility effects for loneliness.</p>