Background
Mental wellbeing is multidimensional and opinion remains divided as to which dimensions
should be part of this construct [1]. Its varying definitions have included the hedonic emphasis
on wellbeing operationalised through measures of positive affect and happiness, and the eudaimonic
emphasis on wellbeing as the realisation of needs that contribute to human psychological
growth [2]. Recent evidence links mental wellbeing to a range of indicators of healthy
ageing highlighting its importance in later life [3–6]. A life course approach to understanding
mental wellbeing would suggest that circumstances and experiences across life may affect wellbeing
in older age.
Life course studies have highlighted the relevance of adverse childhood experiences for psychological
morbidity in adulthood and older age [7–12] but associations between childhood experiences
and adult mental wellbeing have so far received much less attention. Narrative
reviews provide evidence for differences in life satisfaction, happiness and positive psychological
functioning in adulthood by demographic and socioeconomic factors, health status, social
networks and relationship satisfaction, occurrence of life events, psychosocial resources, and
personality [2,13–16] though these are primarily focused on exposures captured in adulthood
either concurrently with or proximally to mental wellbeing. Among the studies that have considered
childhood experiences, the majority have investigated childhood socioeconomic circumstances.
Three showed that greater disadvantage (based on parental education, parental
occupation or household crowding) was associated with poorer mental wellbeing in adulthood
[17–19] but one other did not find such an association [20]. Others have focused on parenting
style and showed that parenting characterised by responsiveness and warmth and absence of
over-protection was associated with better mental wellbeing [21–23]. Deindl and colleagues
[19] recently examined a somewhat wider range of childhood circumstances using data from
the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe. In addition to crowding, mentioned
above, associations were found between life satisfaction and family composition, cultural capital
and health. However, the study relied on retrospective self-reports. To our knowledge, only
one prospective study has considered the potential impact on wellbeing of influences measured
in childhood across multiple domains [24]. That study used the British Cohort Study to show
that family economic circumstances and child’s emotional health and, less importantly, cognitive
performance independently predicted life satisfaction at age 34. Family psychosocial factors
(measured by maternal emotional health, parental divorce and birth within marriage) did
not predict life satisfaction independently but were mediated through the child’s emotional
and cognitive health. In the current study we explore the family environment in more detail
and consider the importance of the family economic and psychosocial environment for mental
wellbeing in early older age.
Based on the literature relating childhood experiences to adult psychological morbidity, it is
clear that studies of the long-term consequences of the childhood environment for menta