A new study has revealed why childhood trauma is linked to poorer health for women at midlife.

The research conducted at Ohio State University is the first to discover that women who experienced childhood trauma such as; the death of a parent, physical abuse or emotional neglect are more likely to have their first child earlier in life and outside marriage.

These factors were further associated with poorer health later in life and affect young women’s decision-making in ways that they can’t entirely control.

Previous researches have focused on how early distress may have biological and neurological effects that would lead to worse health throughout life.

“But there hasn’t been any attention given to how childhood distress may affect social and developmental processes in adolescence and young adulthood, factors that we know are also strong predictors of later health,” said Kristi Williams, lead author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

One of those factors, according to Williams, is the timing and context of first birth.

The study published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior attracted more than 3,000 participants. The participants were interviewed every year through 1994 and once every two years since. The final sample for this study included 3,278 women.

Findings

Each participant reported whether she experienced one or more of six adverse childhood experiences before age 18: emotional neglect, physical abuse, alcoholism in the home, mental illness in the home, death of a biological parent and parental absence.

The researchers then analyzed the data on how old each participant was when she first gave birth and whether she was married, cohabiting or neither at the time. They then rated their health at or near age 40.

The results revealed that each additional childhood trauma experienced by the participants was associated with greater probability for the first birth during adolescence or young adulthood.

Further, childhood traumas were associated with a 24% increase in the probability of being unmarried and not cohabiting at first birth.

The researchers then conducted statistical tests that showed early and non-marital births were a key reason why children who experienced trauma were more likely to report poorer health at midlife.

“Childhood trauma leads to social and biological risks that lead to early and non-marital birth which can lead to health problems later in life,” said Williams.

“It is structural why some people do not go through the ’success sequence’- that is going to college, get married then have children. It is not cultural,” she added.