1. Background
Research Objectives
Methods & Measures
Results
Discussion
Future Directions
Literature Cited
• Elimination of early life stress (ELS)
would result in a 22.9% reduction in
mood disorders, 31.0% in anxiety
disorders, 41.6% in behaviour
disorders, 27.5% in substance
disorders and 29.8% of all disorders
(Kessler et al., 2010).
•One study analysed ELS and negative
life experiences across life span in
individuals diagnosed with depression/
anxiety compared to controls
(Spinhoven et al., 2010). ELS, and not
negative life events, predicted both
any lifetime depressive disorder &
anxiety disorder.
• A similar link was found between ELS
and vulnerability to depression in
healthy individuals (Wells, Vanderling,
Selby, & Beevers, 2013)
Self-report Measures
•The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety
Inventory (STAI-S; STAI-T; anxiety as a
temporary emotion and anxiety as a
stable personality trait)
•The Child and Abuse Trauma Scale
(measuring ELS)
•The Hospital Anxiety and Depression
Scale (HAD-A; HAD-D)
Statistics
• Spearman’s rho
To examine whether elevated levels of
ELS are associated with:
(1) higher depression scores and
(2) higher anxiety scores
• Greater ELS scores were associated
with higher anxiety scores as
measured by HAD-A
• Higher ELS scores were also
correlated with greater depression
scores as measured by the HAD-D
and increased anxiety scores as
assessed by the STAI
• Include an implicit measure of
depression & anxiety in the experiment.
• Examine ELS as different types of
abuse: emotional, physical and sexual
abuse.
Figure 2. Correlation between early life
stress scores as measured by CATS and
depression scores as measured by HAD-D
1. Kessler et al. (2010). Childhood adversities and
adult psychopathology in the WHO World Mental
Health Surveys. The British Journal of Psychiatry,
197(5), 378-385.
2. Spinhoven et al (2010). The specificity of childhood
adversities and negative life events across the life
span to anxiety and depressive disorders. Journal of
affective disorders, 126(1), 103-112.
3. Wells et al. (2013). Childhood abuse and
vulnerability to depression: Cognitive scars in
otherwise healthy young adults. Cognition &
emotion,1-13.
Association between early life stress, depression and anxiety in
healthy young adults
Raluca Iancu Supervisor: Dr. Liat Levita
The University of Sheffield
 Consistent with Wells et al. (2013)
 Partially consistent with Spinhoven et
al.(2010):
• Similarly, stronger correlation between
ELS and depression (HAD-D) than
between ELS and state anxiety (STAI-S)
• However, ELS most strongly correlated
with lasting anxiety (HAD-A & STAI-T),
not depression as they suggested
• Suggesting that healthy individuals with
elevated levels of ELS tend to experience
long-term anxiety significantly more than
long-term depression
Participants
• Recruited via email
•Fifty seven young adults (mean age =
20.37, SE = .27)
• Completed the questionnaires in
random order
0
5
10
15
20
0 50 100
HAD-Anxiety
ELS
Figure 1. Correlation between early life
stress scores as measured by CATS
and anxiety scores as measured by
HAD-A
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
0 50 100
HAD-Depression
ELS
0
15
30
45
60
75
0 50 100
TraitAnxiety
ELS
Figure 3. Correlation between early life
stress scores as measured by CATS and
anxiety scores as measured by STAI-T
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 50 100
StateAnxiety
ELS
Figure 4. Correlation between early life
stress scores as measured by CATS and
depression scores as measured by HAD-D
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank
• Elizabeth J Kirkham for collecting the data and
assisting throughout the research
• The Lab - http://levita-lab.group.shef.ac.uk/
• Sheffield Undergraduate Research Scheme (SURE)
for funding the research