Lifetime exit events and recent social and family adversities in anxious and depressed school-age children and adolescents--II.

The relative contribution made by three sets of social adversities preceding the onset of anxiety and depression in 8-16-year-olds is reported. These three sets of adversities are (i) lifetime exit events over the whole of the subject's life excluding those in the 12 months before onset of disorder in cases or day of interview for controls; (ii) recent family adversities; (iii) recent friendship difficulties and an absence of social achievements. Three cases compared with 35 controls experienced none of these sets of adverse social variables. Lifetime exit events exert significant independent effects on the likelihood of being a case in the presence or absence of the other two sets of factors. This suggests that the impact of multiple lifetime exits is not explained by the presence of recent adversities measured in this study. Twenty controls however experienced two or more of these sets of adversities with four experiencing all three. This suggests that some children appear protected from the pathological effects of these social adversities. The findings are not influenced by the sex or pubertal stage of the subjects and appear with equal likelihood in both anxious and depressive cases.