Childhood Poverty and Young Adults’ Allostatic Load

Gary W. Evans; Pilyoung Kim

doi:10.1177/0956797612441218

Childhood Poverty and Young Adults’ Allostatic Load

Gary W. Evans^1,2; Pilyoung Kim³

¹ Department of Design and Environmental Analysis, Cornell University · ² Department of Human Development, Cornell University · ³ Department of Psychology, University of Denver

Psychological Science 2012

Childhood poverty is linked to a host of physical and psychological disorders during childhood and later in life. In the study reported here, we showed that the proportion of childhood spent in poverty from birth to age 9 was linked to elevated allostatic load, a marker of chronic physiological stress, in 17-year-olds. Furthermore, this prospective longitudinal relationship was mediated by cumulative risk exposure at age 13. The greater the duration of early life spent in poverty, the greater the exposure to cumulative risk. This, in turn, leads to elevated allostatic load. Multiple psychological, biological, and neurological pathways likely account for the social patterning of psychological and physical disease.

DOI: 10.1177/0956797612441218
Volume: 23 (9)
Pages: 979-983
Language: en
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Sources: crossref