Transdiagnostic pathways from early social stress to psychopathology: a 20‐year prospective study

Background Adverse family environments confer susceptibility to virtually all psychiatric problems. This study evaluated two possible models to explain this diversity of associations. Stressful family circumstances during childhood could either activate general, transdiagnostic liabilities to mental disorder or promote numerous disorder‐specific liabilities. Methods We recruited a high‐risk sample of 815 mother‐offspring pairs and assessed social stressors in the family context prospectively from the perinatal period through offspring age 5. We factor analyzed offspring mental disorder diagnoses at age 20 to parse transdiagnostic and disorder‐specific dimensions of psychopathology. Results Structural analyses revealed nearly equivalent prospective effects of early family stress on overarching Internalizing (β = .30) and Externalizing (β = .29) dimensions. In contrast, there was no evidence of disorder‐specific effects. Conclusions Social stressors early in life activate transdiagnostic, and not disorder‐specific, liabilities to psychopathology. A focus on higher‐order dimensions of psychopathology could accelerate etiological research and intervention efforts for stress‐linked mental disorders.