Life Stressors in Young Americans are Linked via Asymmetric U-Shapes to Mental Health Severity

Objective To assess whether adolescent and young adult life stressors predict midlife depression/anxiety symptoms. Methods Using The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (n = 8,984; ages < 35 exposures; ages > 35 outcomes), we modeled maximum scores on CES‑D/GAD‑7 scales with stratified random forests and visualized via accumulated local effects. The U-shaped association was confirmed with quadratic linear regression. Results Lower income, more cohabitations, earlier marriage, and ≥ 6 children predicted ≥ 1‑point higher symptoms; many predictors (income, education, children, marriages) demonstrated variations of U‑shaped association with the outcome. Conclusion Early stressors were associated with midlife mental health symptoms, demonstrating non-linear patterns, which are often not identified by traditional statistical analysis.