Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol ( . ):1–7 DOI 10.1007/s00127-005-0969-x ORIGINAL PAPER Katariina Korkeila . Jyrki Korkeila . Jussi Vahtera . Mika Kivimäki . Sirkka-Liisa Kivelä . Lauri Sillanmäki . Markku Koskenvuo Childhood adversities, adult risk factors and depressiveness A population study Accepted: 22 June 2005 / Published online: 15 September 2005  Abstract Objective Childhood adversities have been associated with adulthood depressiveness, but the contribution of adult risk factors is seldom described. We examined whether adult risk factors lie on the pathway from childhood adversity to adult depressive- ness (pathway hypothesis) or whether the associa- tion depends on life events (vulnerability hypothesis). Method Among 21,101 randomly sampled working- aged respondents [the Health and Social Support in Finland (HeSSup) Study], the hypotheses were tested with logistic regression analysis models studying the associations between Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)-assessed depressiveness and self-reported child- hood adversities alone and in combination with recent adverse events. Results Childhood adversities were consistently associated with depressiveness (women, age-adjusted odds ratio 3.1, 95% confidence intervals 2.6–3.7; men, 2.6, 2.1–3.3), although the risks were de- creased by more than 30% after adjustments for adult risk factors such as living alone, education, alcohol consumption, social support and negative affectivity. Childhood adversities combined with recent life events were associated with depressiveness in an additive manner. Women with childhood adversities and recent person-independent events especially had increased vulnerability for depressiveness. Conclusions The child- hood adversity–depressiveness associations were part- ly mediated by adult risk factors, supporting a pathway from childhood adversities to depressiveness through adult risk factors. Increased vulnerability for depres- siveness was found among respondents with child- hood adversities in combination with recent death/ illness events. The findings emphasize the impor- tance of early risk factors when identifying persons at risk of depression.  Key words adult risk factors – BDI – childhood adversities – depressiveness – population-based SPPE 969 Location of work: Dept. of Family Medicine and Dept. of Public Health, University of Turku, Finland. K. Korkeila, MD, PhD (*) . · S.-L. Kivelä, MD, PhD Dept. of Family Medicine Lemminkäisenkatu 1 20014 University of Turku Turku, Finland Tel.: +358-2/333-8426 Fax: +358-2/333-8439 E-Mail: katariina.korkeila@utu.fi J. Korkeila, MD, PhD Dept. of Psychiatry University of Turku Turku, Finland J. Vahtera, MD, PhD . M. Kivimäki, PhD Finnish Institute of Occupational Health Turku and Helsinki, Finland M. Kivimäki, PhD Dept. of Psychology University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland S.-L. Kivelä, MD, PhD Unit of Family Medicine Turku University Hospital Turku, Finland S.-L. Kivelä, MD, PhD Unit of Family Medicine Satakunta Central Hospital Pori, Finland L. Sillanmäki Dept. of Public Health University of Turku Turku, Finland M. Koskenvuo, MD, PhD Dept. of Public Health University of Helsinki Helsinki, Finland