Health-related social inequalities are aggravated by whether or not people have suffered "severe problems" during childhood. Vulnerability to illness linked to such problems is most significant among underprivileged populations. Moreover, while childhood difficulties affect all social levels, they are more frequent among the most deprived individuals. The article points out how these results have already been brought to light on samples derived from three major surveys conducted by INSEE between 1978 and 1992. It then draws from the surveys conducted from 1994 to 1997 by CREDES to present their more in-depth analyses explaining three of the processes through which people stating that they experienced problems in their childhood find themselves in a worse state of health: this fact is linked with higher risk-taking, which is, in itself, often pathogenic; it often aggravates the consequences of recent unfortunate events in terms of morbidity; in addition, the protection afforded by the memory of problems experienced during childhood diminishes in keeping with the educational level.