CHILDHOOD FAMILY VIOLENCE AND ADULT RECURRENT DEPRESSION

Although previous research has shown that childhood adversity has long -term effects on adult depression, little is known about the causal pa thways involved in these effects. In this report data from a two-wave longitudinal survey of the U.S. household population are used to study these pathways as they affect the association between childhood famil y violence and adult recurrence of depression. We focus on recurrence of depression because most episodes of clinically significant depressi on in adulthood occur to persons with a history of depression. We find that chronic interpersonal stress in adulthood mediates the effect of childhood family violence on recurrence of depression, and that child hood family violence modifies the effect of chronic adult interpersona l stress on recurrence of depression. Furthermore, in the absence of c hronic adult interpersonal stress there is no association between chil dhood family violence and adult recurrence of depression.