Are Adverse Childhood Experiences Associated With Being in the System of Care?

Abstract

BackgroundAdverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can cause serious mental problems in adolescents and therefore may expected to be associated with higher use of psychosocial care, potentially varying by type of specific ACE. The aim of our study is to explore the association of the number of ACE and types of specific ACE with entering and using psychosocial care.MethodsWe used data from the Slovak Care4Youth cohort study, comprising 509 adolescents from 10 to 16 years old (mean age 13.2 years, 48.6% boys). We used logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, and family affluence to explore the associations of number and type of specific ACE with the use of psychosocial care.ResultsHaving three or more ACE as well as experiencing some specific ACE (death of a mother/father, death of somebody else you love, problems of a parent with alcohol or drugs, conflicts or physical fights between parents, and separation/divorce of parents) increased the likelihood of using psychosocial care. Regarding experience with the death of somebody else you love, we found a decreased likelihood of the use of psychosocial care.ConclusionExperiencing ACE above a certain threshold (three or more) and parent-related ACE increase the likelihood of adolescent care use.

Outcomes of adverse childhood experience during late adolescence: Evidence from college and community samples

“…Globally, a systematic review revealed that two‐thirds of youth younger than 18‐years‐old have experienced ACEs (Carlson et al, 2019). A few studies have examined ACEs outcomes among early, middle, and late adolescents in different cultural contexts, such as the United States (Barnhart et al, 2022; Bomysoad & Francis, 2020; Weller et al, 2021), Slovakia (Lackova Rebicova et al, 2022), Hungary (Kovács‐Tóth et al, 2021), and Thailand (Myat Zaw et al, 2022). ACEs can induce mental (Barnhart et al, 2022; Weller et al, 2021) and physical health issues (Kovács‐Tóth et al, 2021), as well as substance abuse (Bomysoad & Francis, 2020) and poor academic success (Myat Zaw et al, 2022) during the adolescence period.…”

“…ACEs can induce mental (Barnhart et al, 2022; Weller et al, 2021) and physical health issues (Kovács‐Tóth et al, 2021), as well as substance abuse (Bomysoad & Francis, 2020) and poor academic success (Myat Zaw et al, 2022) during the adolescence period. Consequently, ACEs lead to higher healthcare visits among adolescents (Bhattarai et al, 2021; Lackova Rebicova et al, 2022). The evidence reveals that although ACEs may negatively influence adolescents' well‐being (Kelifa et al, 2021), this warrants examination in various cultural contexts because subjective well‐being regards individuals' interests and positive effects (Diener, Heintzelman, et al, 2017) as distinctively shaped by culture (Tov & Diener, 2009).…”