The curvilinear relationship of early-life adversity and successful aging: the mediating role of mental health

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The steeling effect suggests that early-life adversity can have a beneficial impact later in life. However, little is known about its underlying mechanisms and long-term outcomes . The study aimed to examine the role of early-life adversity (ELA) on successful aging, and whether this relationship can be explained by mental and physical health.

Method: Socio-demographics, early-life adversity (ELA), individual quality of life (iQoL), and mental and physical health of 270 individuals (M_age = 66.82 years, 71.5% female) were assessed. Polynomial regressions and mediation analyses were conducted.

Results: Significant inverse U-shaped associations were found between ELA and iQoL (β = −.59, p = .005) and between ELA and mental health (β = −.64, p = .002), but not between ELA and physical health. Furthermore, mental health significantly mediated the relationship between ELA and iQoL (b = −.84, BCa CI [−1.66, −.27]).

Conclusion: Highest level of individual quality of life (i.e. successful aging) was related to a moderate amount of ELA. Additionally, mental health significantly mediated this relationship. These findings suggest that some amount of ELA could be beneficial for successful aging. Resource-focused interventions are needed to improve health and promote successful aging for an underdetected, at-risk subgroup with low early-life adversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Early-life adversity
• individual quality of life
• steeling
• successful aging
• mental health

Acknowledgments

During the work on their dissertations, Jan Höltge and Shauna L. Mc Gee were pre-doctoral fellows of LIFE (International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course; participating institutions: MPI for Human Development, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, University of Zurich). The authors would like to thank the University Research Priority Program (URPP) ‘Dynamics of Healthy Aging’ at the University of Zurich and the Jacobs Foundation which supported this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship [grant number ESKAS-Nr. 2016.0109] which founded SLMG's position.