Early life stress and psychopathology.

Exposure to chronic or severe stressful life events during childhood and adolescence—frequently referred to as early life stress (ELS) or childhood adversity—has powerful andlasting associations with psychopathology across the life course. This chapter reviews thegrowing body of research on ELS and psychopathology across the life course, with aparticular focus on the mechanisms that explain the strong associations between ELS andpsychopathology. To address these questions, I review evidence on the links between ELSand psychopathology and highlight divergent conceptual models of ELS that advocatedifferent approaches to uncovering these mechanisms. I end by addressing differentapproaches to the measurement and analysis of ELS that have emerged from theseconceptual frameworks.