Mental health problems are unfortunately a common occurrence among young people in Ireland. In a recent report on the mental health of young people in Ireland (Cannon et al, 2013) it was found that by the age of 13, 1 in 3 young people are likely to have experienced some form of psychological disorder at some point in their lives and 1 in 6 fulfilled criteria for a current mental disorder at time of interview. The question when presented with such astounding information is why are so many young people experiencing these psychological symptoms?
Childhood is a formative time when individuals can be exposed to many stressful life events that could potentially impact on mental health. Therefore, it is pertinent to question whether these events could trigger psychopathology.
The “Growing up in Ireland”, National Longitudinal Study, recruited and interviewed a large cohort of 9 year olds, 7,525 of whom were re-interviewed at the age of 13. The interviews conducted used a number of different measures of early life stress. This cohort offers a fantastic opportunity to explore the impact of the stress an economic recession can have on children’s mental health as they progress from the “boom” years age 9 to recessionary times, age 13. Using this broad scope of exposures in this large cohort I plan to investigate the association between exposure to early life stressors and the presence of psychological symptoms at age 13.
