Childhood adversities, parent-child relationships and dispositional optimism in adulthood

Background Studies exploring the effects of childhood adversities and parent-child relationship on adulthood dispositional optimism are rather rare, have been performed on small, selected samples and lack analyses of interaction between childhood factors. Method A total of 19,970 working-aged Finns responded to the population-based HeSSup Study baseline questionnaire in 1998. The level of dispositional optimism (measured with the LOT-R scale) was analyzed according to self-reported childhood adversities, childhood parent-child relationships and their interaction, using multivariate linear regression analysis methods.A number of potential confounding factors (education, living alone, recent life events, somatic health and depressive mood) were taken into account. Results Childhood adversities were associated with decreasing optimism in a dose-response manner.Good parent-child relationships were associated with increasing optimism,with a partial buffering effect when confronting adversities. Conclusion Those reporting childhood adversities and poor parent-child relationships had less optimistic expectations, which may need to be addressed in clinical settings.