Childhood family adversity increases the risk of a wide range of psychological and physical health problems later in life, prompting research into developmental pathways linking childhood experiences to adult health. The current paper discusses a social-biological pathway by which childhood family relationships influence the development of the social and emotional skills necessary for adaptive behavioral and biological responses to stress. Failures in the development of social and emotional competence during childhood may lead to dysregulated responses to stress and difficulties in social relationships across the lifespan. Over time, the cumulative impact of dysregulated stress responses and low social support may increase the risk of mental and physical health problems later in life.
AdamsR. E.SantoJ. B.BukowskiW.M. (2011). The presence of a best friend buffers the effects of negative experiences. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1786–1791.
2.
AlinkL. R. A.CicchettiD.KimJ.RogoschF. A. (2012). Longitudinal associations among child maltreatment, social functioning, and cortisol regulation. Developmental Psychology, 48, 224–236.
3.
AndaR. F.FelittiV. J.BremnerJ. D.WalkerJ. D.WhitfieldC.PerryB. D.GilesW. H. (2006). The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood: A convergence of evidence from neurobiology and epidemiology. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 256, 174–186.
4.
BeauchampM. H.AndersonV. (2010). SOCIAL: An integrative framework for the development of social skills. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 39–64.
5.
BolgerN.FosterM.VinokurA. D.NgR. (1996). Close relationships and adjustment to a life crisis: The case of breast cancer. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 283–294.
6.
CrickN. R.DodgeK. A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social information-processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101.
7.
DoucetJ.AseltineR. H.Jr. (2003). Childhood family adversity and the quality of marital relationships in young adulthood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 20, 818–842.
8.
EisenbergN.HoferC.VaughanJ. (2007). Effortful control and its socioemotional consequences. In GrossJ. (Ed.), Handbook of Emotion Regulation (pp. 287–206). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
9.
FingerB.EidenR. D.EdwardsE. P.LeonardK. E.KachadourianL. (2010). Marital aggression and child peer competence: A comparison of three conceptual models. Personal Relationships, 17, 357–376.
10.
FordE.ClarkC.StansfeldS. A. (2011). The influence of childhood adversity on social relations and mental health at mid-life. Journal of Affective Disorders, 133, 320–327.
11.
GazelleH.DruhenM. J. (2009). Anxious solitude and peer exclusion predict social helplessness, upset affect, and vagal regulation in response to behavioral rejection by a friend. Developmental Psychology, 4, 1077–1096.
12.
GunnarM. R.SebancA. M.ToutK.DonzellaB.van DulmenM. M. H. (2003). Peer rejection, temperament, and cortisol activity in preschoolers. Developmental Psychobiology, 43, 346–358.
13.
Holt-LunstadJ.SmithT.B.LaytonB. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A meta-analytic review. PLoS Medicine. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316.
14.
KimJCicchettiD. (2004). A Longitudinal study of child maltreatment, mother–child relationship quality and maladjustment: The role of self-esteem and social competence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32, 341–354.
15.
LansfordL. E.MaloneP. S.DodgeK. A.PettitG. S.BatesJ. E. (2010). Developmental cascades of peer rejection, social information processing biases, and aggression during middle childhood. Development and Psychopathology, 22, 593–602.
16.
LueckenL. JAppelhansB. (2005). Information-processing biases in young adults from bereaved and divorced families. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 309–313.
17.
LueckenL. J.AppelhansB. M.KraftA.BrownA. (2006). Never far from home: A cognitive-affective model of the impact of early-life family relationships on physiological stress responses in adulthood. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23, 189–203.
18.
LueckenL. J.KraftA. J.HaganM. (2009). Negative relationships in the family-of-origin predict attenuated cortisol in emerging adults. Hormones and Behavior, 55, 412–417.
19.
LueckenL. J.LemeryK. (2004). Early caregiving and adult physiological stress responses. Clinical Psychology Review, 24, 171–191.
20.
LueckenL. J.RoubinovD. S. (2012). Hostility and hostile behavior link negative childhood family relationships to cardiovascular reactivity and recovery in young adulthood. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 84, 172–179.
21.
MaughanA.CicchettiD. (2002). Impact of child maltreatment and interadult violence on children’s emotion regulation abilities and socioemotional adjustment. Child Development, 73, 1525–1542.
22.
McEwenB. S.WingfieldJ. C. (2003). The concept of allostasis in biology and biomedicine. Hormones and Behavior, 43, 2–15.
23.
MillerG. E.ChenE.ParkerK. J. (2011). Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging: Moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 959–997.
24.
ParkerJ.RubinK. H.ErathS.WojslawowiczJ. C.BuskirkA. A. (2006). Peer relationships and developmental psychopathology. In CicchettiD.CohenD. (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology: Theory and method (Vol. 1, 2nd ed.,) (pp. 419–493). New York, NY: Wiley.
25.
RamaniG. B.BrownellC. A.CampbellS. B. (2010). Positive and negative peer interaction in 3- and 4-year olds in relation to regulation and dysregulation. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 171, 218–250.
26.
RepettiR. L.TaylorS. E.SeemanT. E. (2002). Risky families: Family social environments and the mental and physical health of offspring. Psychological Bulletin, 128(2), 330–366.
27.
RogoschF. A.CicchettiD.AberJ. L. (1995). The role of child maltreatment in early deviations in cognitive and affective processing abilities and later peer relationship problems. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 591–610.
28.
ScaramellaL. V.LeveL. D. (2004). Clarifying parent–child reciprocities during early childhood: The early childhood coercion model. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 7, 89–107.
29.
SimpsonJ. A.CollinsW. A.SalvatoreJ. E. (2011). The impact of early interpersonal experience on adult romantic relationship functioning: Recent findings from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 355–359.
30.
UchinoB. N. (2006). Social support and health: A review of physiological processes potentially underlying links to disease outcomes. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 29, 377–387.
31.
UchinoB. N.CacioppoJ. T.Kiecolt-GlaserJ. K. (1996). The relationship between social support and physiological processes: A review with emphasis on underlying mechanisms and implications for health. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 488–531.
32.
YoungbladeL.BelskyJ. (1992). Parent-child antecedents of 5-year-olds’ close friendships: A longitudinal analysis. Developmental Psychology, 28 (4), 700–713.
33.
ZhouQ.EisenbergN.LosoyaS. H.FabesR. A.ReiserM.GuthrieI. K.ShepardS. A. (2002). The relations of parental warmth and positive expressiveness to children’s empathy-related responding and social functioning: A Longitudinal Study. Child Development, 73, 893–915.
