Associations between adverse childhood experiences and depressive and anxiety symptoms in adolescents and young adults

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with chronic health problems in adolescents and young adults. The aim of this study was to investigate in adolescents and young adults how lower quality of life, elevated perceived stress and ACEs could influence depression and anxiety symptoms, practice of physical activity, loss of control while eating, tobacco use, and obesity/overweight. Participants were assessed by questionnaire and scales, including the 17-item Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale (HDRS17), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire, the World Health Organization quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) total score, the global physical activity questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, the loss of control overeating scale and anthropometric measures. The participants who experienced ≥ 4 types of ACEs (n = 10) had more major depressive disorder (p < 0.01), higher scores on the Perceived Stress Scale (p = 0.03), lower quality of life (p < 0.01) and domains of physical and psychological health (p < 0.03) than those with < 4 types of ACEs (n = 52). Higher scores on the Perceived Stress Scale and lower scores on the WHOQOL-BREF were associated to higher prevalence of more severe depressive symptoms [Prevalence Ratio (PR) = 4.02, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.46–16.88, p = 0.03], more severe anxiety symptoms (PR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.30–3.41, p < 0.01) and ≥4 ACEs (PR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.19–2.88, p < 0.01). Implications of these findings for clinical practice were pay more attention to health care of adolescent and young adults who survived of higher childhood maltreatments and had more severe depressive and anxiety symptoms to therapeutic target.