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. 2022 Feb 26:9:2333794X221078708.
doi: 10.1177/2333794X221078708. eCollection 2022.

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Health and Development in Young Children

Erica M Webster  1
Affiliations

The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Health and Development in Young Children

Erica M Webster. Glob Pediatr Health. .

Abstract

In recent years, there have been advances in research regarding the prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and resulting poor outcomes for children who have experiences ACES. ACE exposure has been connected with poor academic performance, poor health outcomes, and certain diseases. However, there is still relatively little known about the prevalence and impact of ACE exposure in early childhood. Using the 2016 National Survey of Children's Health, this study assessed the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences for children under the age of six years. This research measured the impact of individual ACEs on health and developmental outcomes and found that financial hardship and parental mental illness both had increased odds of having health and developmental difficulties. Furthermore, this work finds that there is a dose-response relationship between ACE count and increased risk of health and developmental difficulties. Conversely, children who were reported as affectionate with their parent had decreased risk for health and developmental problems. Programs supporting families with young children should focus efforts on enhancing quality of attachment, especially for children experiencing ACEs.

Keywords: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs); attachment; developmental cascades; protective factors; resilience.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Relationship of individual ACEs to the relative risk of cumulative health and developmental impairments. Abbreviations: ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences; CSHCN, Child with Special Health Care Needs.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Relationship of total ACE score to the relative risk of total health and developmental impairments. Abbreviations: ACEs, Adverse Childhood Experiences; CSHCN, Child with Special Health Care Needs.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Predictive margins by ACE score for increased health and developmental difficulties sorted by affectionate children.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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