CYP Now - Adolescent victimization and early-adult psychopathology: Approaching causal inference using a longitudinal twin study to rule out non-causal explanations

Researchers from King’s College London used data gathered from the eRisk twin study to verify the extent to which experiences of trauma occurring in childhood and adolescence predicted behavioural and mental health problems at the age of 18.

Authors: JD Schaefer, TE Moffitt, L Arseneault, A Danese, HL Fisher, R Houts, MA Sheridan, J Wertz and A Caspi

Published by: Clinical Psychological Science, 2018

Prospective study designs provide a more robust method for understanding the causal relationship between childhood events and adult outcomes than retrospective surveys, not only because adult memories tend to be faulty, but also because prospective studies clearly establish a before and after sequence of events.

Well designed prospective studies also help researchers consider the impact of the developmental timing of adverse events. For example, some studies show that trauma occurring in early childhood may be more impactful than trauma occurring during adolescence, while others show that trauma occurring in adolescence may, in fact, be more damaging.

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