Are Social Vulnerability and Family Social Support Associated with Children’s Psychiatric Symptoms?

Social influence can shape early childhood at different levels. We explored the association between social vulnerability and lifetime caregiver alcohol use with children’s psychiatric symptoms. Multivariable logistic regression assessed the association between child psychiatric symptoms and social vulnerability among 1275 preschool child-caregiver pairs with lifetime caregiver alcohol used as a control variable. Of the children, 15.78% (95% CI 15.17–16.42) had internalizing symptoms, 2.49% (95% CI 2.19–2.83) had externalizing symptoms, and 9.36% (95% CI 8.88–9.86) had internalizing/externalizing symptoms. High social vulnerability was positively correlated with internalizing (aRRR 1.54; 95% CI 1.41–1.68) and internalizing/externalizing symptoms (aRRR 1.77; 95% CI 1.58–2.00). Low family support was strongly associated with internalizing/externalizing symptoms (aRRR 2.60; 95% CI 2.20–3.10). Lifetime caregiver alcohol use was positively correlated with all three psychiatric symptoms (aRRR 1.33; 95% CI 1.18–1.51; aRRR 1.13; 95% CI 1.06–1.59; and aRRR 1.26; 95% CI 1.12–1.42). Their association with children’s mental health outcomes calls for social policy changes at the macrosystem level.