Early Childhood Psychopathology Prospectively Predicts Social Functioning in Early Adolescence

Abstract

Psychopathology in school-age children predicts impairment later in development. However, the long-term psychosocial consequences of early childhood psychopathology are less well known. The current study is the first to prospectively examine how a range of diagnoses and symptoms in early childhood predict psychosocial functioning across specific domains during early adolescence 6–9 years later. A community sample (N = 595; 44.9% female; 88.7% White, 12.6% Hispanic) was assessed for psychopathology at ages 3 and 6 using the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment. Diagnoses and dimensional scores for depressive, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD), and oppositional defiant disorders (ODD) were examined. When children were 12 years old, children and parents completed the UCLA Life Stress Interview for Children, a semistructured interview assessing functioning in multiple domains (academic, behavior, close friends, broader peers, maternal relationship, paternal relationship). Having a diagnosis in early childhood predicted greater impairment in all domains in early adolescence, except paternal relationship. Externalizing disorders predicted impairment in more domains than internalizing disorders. Most of the associations between early childhood psychopathology and poorer functioning in adolescence persisted after taking into account adolescent psychopathology. Moreover, the majority of bivariate associations with depressive, ODD, and ADHD symptoms, but not anxiety symptoms, persisted in a subsample of children who did not meet criteria for a diagnosis in early childhood. Early childhood psychopathology has long-lasting deleterious effects on several domains of psychosocial functioning, often beyond the effects of continuing or recurring adolescent psychopathology. Findings thereby highlight the validity and clinical significance of early psychopathology.