TY - JOUR
T1 - Patterns of exposure to adverse childhood experiences and their associations with mental health
T2 - A survey of 1346 university students in East Asia
AU - Ho, Grace W.K.
AU - Bressington, D.
AU - Karatzias, T.
AU - Chien, W. T.
AU - Inoue, S.
AU - Yang, P. J.
AU - Chan, A. C.Y.
AU - Hyland, P.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Internal Start-Up Fund.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/3
Y1 - 2020/3
N2 - Introduction: 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. Purpose: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.
AB - Introduction: 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. Purpose: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.
KW - Adverse childhood experiences
KW - East Asia
KW - Latent class analysis
KW - Mental health
KW - Young adults
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073981393&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00127-019-01768-w
DO - 10.1007/s00127-019-01768-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 31501908
AN - SCOPUS:85073981393
SN - 0933-7954
VL - 55
SP - 339
EP - 349
JO - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
JF - Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
IS - 3
ER -