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- Title
Patterns of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and their associations with mental health: a survey of 1346 university students in East Asia.
- Authors
Ho, Grace W. K.; Bressington, D.; Karatzias, T.; Chien, W. T.; Inoue, S.; Yang, P. J.; Chan, A. C. Y.; Hyland, P.
- Abstract
<bold>Introduction: </bold>Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) constitute a significant global mental health burden. Prior studies typically investigated the impact of ACEs on mental health using a cumulative risk approach; most ACEs studies were also conducted in Western settings.<bold>Purpose: </bold>This study aimed to examine ACEs using a pattern-based approach and assess their associations with mental health outcomes by early adulthood in East Asia.<bold>Methods: </bold>The present study included measures of exposure to 13 categories of ACEs, depression, anxiety, maladjustment, and posttraumatic stress in a sample of 1346 university students from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Japan.<bold>Results: </bold>Latent class analysis indicated three distinct patterns of ACE exposure: Class 1: Low ACEs (76.0%); Class 2: Household Violence (20.6%); and Class 3: Household Dysfunction (3.4%). Those representing Class 3 had significantly more ACEs compared with those in Classes 1 or 2. Controlling for age and sex, those in Class 2 reported significantly higher depression and maladjustment symptoms compared with those in Class 1; both Classes 2 and 3 had significantly higher anxiety symptoms and odds for meeting diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorders compared with those in Class 1.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Study findings suggest that young adults' mental health, at least under certain contexts, is more closely linked with the nature and pattern of ACE co-occurrence, rather than the number of ACEs.
- Subjects
EAST Asia; MENTAL health surveys; ADVERSE childhood experiences; ADULT child abuse victims; ASSOCIATION of ideas; STUDENT health; POST-traumatic stress; COLLEGE students
- Publication
Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, 2020, Vol 55, Issue 3, p339
- ISSN
0933-7954
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s00127-019-01768-w