Children who experienced poor family conditions and traumatic events faced significantly higher early cardiovascular risk.
Children and adolescents who grew up in adverse conditions, such as poverty, neglect, serious family illness or death, problematic parental relationships, etc., are at greater risk of being victims of bullying, as well as mental and cardiovascular problems before and after adulthood, show two new scientific studies, one British and one Danish.
The first research by Cambridge University psychologists, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, studied nearly 13,000 11-year-olds. Those who came from poor families or felt poorer than their peers had 6% to 8% lower self-esteem and 11% less satisfaction with their lives, while they were 17% more likely to be victims of verbal or physical violence, have anxiety, internalized anger or hyperactivity; At age 14, the child who continued to feel poorer was 8% more likely to be victimized.
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The research emphasizes the importance of social and economic comparison, especially in early adolescence, because it is at this stage that the child forms his sense of self (how popular he is, how much he likes it, where he is privileged, where he is left behind, what how much he feels as a member of a group, etc. a ). Better for both mental health and social behavior, the study found, the child has a sense of financial equality with their friends and classmates, even children who feel wealthier are more likely to bully others and have others. behavioral problems.
“Several studies have shown that young people who are objectively from deprived family backgrounds have more mental difficulties. Our findings suggest that the subjective experience of deprivation also plays a role. You don’t have to be really rich or poor,” said researcher Pierre B Saunier. Feeling richer or poorer than their peers, and that affects teenagers’ mental health.”
The second study, according to the APE, and the largest of its kind to date, was led by epidemiology professor Nadia Holveg Ruud, from the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen, which was published in the European Heart Journal of European Society. At the Department of Cardiology, they analyzed data from nearly 1.3 million children, 4,118 of whom were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease by age 16.
It was found that those who experienced bad family circumstances and traumatic events (severe illness of a relative such as cancer, death, poverty, abandonment of a parent, dysfunctional and stressful family relationships, etc.) . The risk of developing cardiovascular disease increased by almost 60% compared to colleagues who did not have such a troublesome background.
