Females have more complex patterns of childhood adversity: implications for mental, social, and emotional outcomes in adulthood

Abstract

Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been identified as an important public health problem with serious implications. Less well understood is how distinct configurations of childhood adversities carry differential risks for mental health, emotional, and social outcomes later in life. Objective: To determine if distinct profiles of childhood adversities exist for males and females and to examine if unique associations exist between the resultant latent profiles of childhood adversities and multiple indicators of mental health and social and emotional wellbeing in adulthood. Method: Participants (N = 1,839) were a nationally representative household sample of adults currently residing in the USA and the data were collected via online self-report questionnaires. Latent class analysis was used to identify the optimal number of classes to explain ACE co-occurrence among males and females, separately. ANOVAs, chi-square tests, and t-tests were used to compare male and female classes across multiple mental health, emotional, and social wellbeing variables in adulthood. Results: Females were significantly more likely than males to report a range of ACEs and mental health, social, and emotional difficulties in adulthood. Two-and four-class models were identified as the best fit for males and females, respectively, indicating more complexity and variation in ACE exposures among females. For males and female, ACEs were strongly associated with poorer mental health, emotional, and social outcomes in adulthood. Among females, growing up in a dysfunctional home environment was a significant risk factor for adverse social outcomes in adulthood. Conclusions: Males and females have distinct patterns of childhood adversities, with females experiencing more complex and varied patterns of childhood adversity. These patterns of ACEs were associated with numerous negative mental, emotional, and social outcomes among both sexes.

Symptom structure of ICD-11 Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) in trauma-exposed foster children: examining the International Trauma Questionnaire – Child and Adolescent Version (ITQ-CA)

“…Analysis revealed gender differences regarding trauma exposure, with girls reporting significantly higher rates of sexual abuse, sexual assault and sudden/violent death of a close person (e.g. Haahr-Pedersen et al, 2020 ). Subsequent analysis evidenced gender differences regarding CPTSD symptomatology, with girls exhibiting significantly higher rates of PTSD and DSO symptoms, as has been shown in studies in adults (e.g.…”

Cumulative Exposure to Adverse Childhood Experience: Depressive Symptoms, Suicide Intensions and Suicide Plans among Senior High School Students in Nanchang City of China

“…No country is immune to the problem of violence, including domestic violence, the consequences of which can be devastating [52]. There are gender differences in sexual abuse, physical abuse and household violence in childhood and female are vulnerable groups [53], which reminds us to pay more attention to the mental health of women.…”

The Long-Term Health and Human Capital Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Birth to Thirty Cohort: Single, Cumulative, and Clustered Adversity

“…Therefore, demonstrating that disaggregation by sex is important. In further support of this, one study that assessed gendered profiles of adversity concluded that there are separate and distinct patterns of childhood adversities, with females experiencing more complex and varied patterns [29].…”

“…The objectives of this study are therefore to (a) examine the associations between ACEs and adult human capital, and (b) explore how the measurement of ACEs may vary in relation to these human capital outcomes. Prior research, including studies using this cohort, have highlighted sex differences in the prevalence of ACEs and their associations with outcomes [17,24,[27][28][29][30]. The patterning of ACEs and their links to human capital outcomes will be disaggregated by sex throughout this analysis.…”