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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Depress Anxiety. 2010 Dec;27(12):1087–1094. doi: 10.1002/da.20762

Table 1.

Distribution of childhood environmental characteristics in the total sample and by emotional reactivity among men (N=268) in the Study of Adult Development1
Total Sample
(N=268)		 Low Emotional
Reactivity
(n=214)		 High
Emotional
Reactivity2,3
(n=54)
N (%) N (%) N (%)
Overall Childhood
Environment		 Poor 47 17.5 38 18.8 9 17.0
Moderate 76 27.5 56 27.7 20 37.7
Good 80 29.9 63 31.2 17 32.1
Excellent 52 19.4 45 22.3 7 13.2
Environmental Strengths Poor 64 23.9 54 26.7 10 18.9
Moderate/Good 130 48.5 97 48.0 33 62.3
Excellent 61 22.8 51 25.3 10 18.9
Adaptive Functioning Poor 75 28.0 59 29.2 16 30.2
Moderate/Good 135 50.4 104 51.5 31 58.5
Excellent 45 16.7 39 19.3 6 11.3
Maternal Educational
Attainment		 Grade school 17 6.3 13 6.3 4 7.4
High school 123 45.9 103 49.5 20 37.0
Post High School Training 30 11.2 24 11.5 6 11.1
Attended College 83 31.0 62 29.8 21 38.9
Attended Graduate School 9 3.4 6 2.9 3 5.6
Paternal Educational
Attainment		 No formal education 1 0.4 0 0 1 1.9
Grade school 15 5.6 13 6.2 2 3.7
High school 38 14.2 30 14.3 8 14.8
Post-high school Training 14 5.2 12 5.7 2 3.7
Graduated College 99 36.9 76 36.2 23 42.6
Attended Graduate School 97 36.2 79 37.6 18 33.3
Parental SES Working Class/Blue Collar 43 16.0 30 15.2 13 24.1
Lower Middle Class 57 21.3 43 21.7 14 25.9
Middle Class 104 38.8 85 42.9 19 35.2
Upper Middle Class 39 14.6 33 16.7 6 11.1
Upper Class 9 3.4 7 3.5 2 3.7
Parental Marital Quality Married and Low Conflict 68 25.4 53 33.3 15 38.5
Separated/Divorced/Widowed and/or High Conflict 130 48.5 106 66.7 24 61.5
1

Columns may not add to 100% due to missing data.

2

Participants who responded with any apprehension to the ear puncture and with moderate or marked apprehension to the venipuncture were coded as having high emotional reactivity. See Methods section for details.

3

Although highly reactive respondents were somewhat more likely to be from lower SES families and to have poorer overall childhood environments, the distribution of childhood environmental characteristics did not vary significantly as a function of adolescent stress reactivity.