INFLUENCE OF EARLY AND RECENT AS WELL AS ACUTE AND CHRONIC STRESSORS ON THE EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS - RESULTS OF A PROSPECTIVE EPIDEMIOLOGIC-STUDY FROM AGE 8 TO 18

In a prospective epidemiological study with assessments at ages 8, 13 and 18 it could be demonstrated that if all risk factors are analyzed at the same time recent stressors are more important than stressors an d disturbances in early childhood. But from a chronological point of v iew early stressors were found to be at least as important as later on es because the early stressors play a role in the development of some of the later ones. The effects of stressors were sex-specific to some extent: Boys were more seriously affected when of elementary school ag e, whereas girls were more affected in early childhood and in adolesce nce. Chronic stress proved to be more important than acute life events , the later being not only a cause but also a consequence of emotional disturbances. Children with early disturbances sometimes even had low er rates of disorders in adolescence if they had been brought up in an overprotective manner.