Adolescent chronic pain links parental rejection to young adult biopsychosocial problems
Kandauda A. S. Wickrama
Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Writing - original draft
Search for more papers by this authorThulitha Wickrama
Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Contribution: Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Writing - original draft
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Tara E. Sutton
Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, USA
Correspondence
Tara E. Sutton, Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, 204 Bowen Hall, 456 Hardy Road, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Contribution: Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorTae Kyoung Lee
Child Psychology and Education, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
Contribution: Data curation, Methodology, Validation
Search for more papers by this authorKandauda A. S. Wickrama
Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
Contribution: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Writing - original draft
Search for more papers by this authorThulitha Wickrama
Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
Contribution: Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Writing - original draft
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Tara E. Sutton
Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Mississippi, USA
Correspondence
Tara E. Sutton, Department of Sociology, Mississippi State University, 204 Bowen Hall, 456 Hardy Road, Mississippi State, MS, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Contribution: Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing
Search for more papers by this authorTae Kyoung Lee
Child Psychology and Education, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
Contribution: Data curation, Methodology, Validation
Search for more papers by this authorAbstract
Little is known about the mediating role of adolescent chronic pain in the connection between adolescent parental rejection and psychosocial and physical health (i.e., disease risk) outcomes in young adulthood (YA). To address this gap, the present study tested a model of a successively contingent developmental process that integrates neurophysiological research and the life course developmental perspective. The model included parental rejection and chronic pain in adolescence and depressive symptoms, low education attainment, economic hardship and allostatic load in YA. The study utilized 13 years of prospective data from a nationally representative sample of 11,030 US adolescents. The findings largely supported the hypothesized model. Adolescent chronic pain, as influenced by parental rejection, was associated with depressive symptoms and economic hardship in YA. In addition, parental rejection directly influenced depressive symptoms, education level and economic hardship, all of which, in turn, contributed to greater physical health risk (i.e., allostatic load) in YA. These associations persisted even after controlling for adolescent illness, depressive symptoms, age, sex and race/ethnicity. Multi-group analysis showed that female participants were more vulnerable to stressful parental rejection and socioeconomic difficulties in YA. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
All authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Research
DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT
Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth).
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