Adversity and child well-being: exploring recent research from different fields

Awareness about early life adversity and how it affects children’s well-being has been around for more than two decades but attention to the theme has been growing. Research has progressively been focusing on how the early years of life influence the development and well-being of children, as well later stages in life. The research fields that have dealt with this topic are varied, ranging from psychology, to biology, the neurosciences, and even economics, among others. Within these, adversity has been widely understood as negative life events or circumstances experienced during childhood, which include neglect, abuse, and victimization, but also economic hardship. Conclusions are diverse and dispersed. Focusing on research from the late 2000s onwards, this chapter aims to provide an overview of the number of papers published on the subject, but also to identify the major fields of research engaged in studying childhood adversity, and review and bring together the main findings of the different research fields on the effects of childhood adversity.