May 22, 2012
Recently under more frequent disussion in the community of child welfare professionals is the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (“the ACE study”) out of Kaiser Permanente, which began in the 1980’s. The ACE study linked adverse childhood experiences with negative adult experiences, including physical health risks, substance abuse, involvement in the criminal justice system, mental health problems, unemployment, and poverty. The ACE study also demonstrated a proportional relationship between childhood adversity and adult problems, meaning that the more adverse childhood experiences a person underwent, the greater the impact on that individual’s adult experiences.
Another study has been recently published on the subject. Arising out of Brown College in Missouri, led by Melissa Johnson-Reid, PhD, and co-authored with Patricia L. Kohl, PhD, and F. Brett Drake, PhD, this study tracked a number of children by the number of child maltreatment reports and followed them into early adulthood.
The team found that the more childhood adversity someone underwent, the worse their outcomes both in adolescence and in early adulthood. The negative outcomes looked at in adolescence included delinquency, substance abuse, and getting a sexually transmitted disease, among others. In adulthood, they included adult substance abuse, maltreating one’s own children, and suicide attempts, among others.
These findings provide further support to the work done as part of the ACE Study and other similar research.
You can find the new study in the current issue of Pediatrics. See this synopsis in Science Daily: Chronic Child Abuse Strong Indicator of Negative Adult Experiences.