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. 2024 Sep:164:107851.
doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2024.107851. Epub 2024 Aug 20.

Assessing Childhood Community Experiences

Samantha Addante  1 , Jacob D Kraft  1 , Déjà Clement  1 , Gina Erato  1 , Ashley Quigley  1 , Mira Armans  1 , Kristin Fields  1 , Vanessa Oliphant  1 , LaRicka Wingate  1 , Lucia Ciciolla  1
Affiliations

Assessing Childhood Community Experiences

Samantha Addante et al. Child Youth Serv Rev. 2024 Sep.

Abstract

Aims: Community-level childhood experiences make up important aspects of early life that are associated with long-term health outcomes. However, to date, there have been no validated measures that assess community-level experiences during childhood. Thus, we aimed to develop and validate a measure that would assess community-level experiences associated with both risk and resilience.

Methods: Data were collected from 577 undergraduate participants (68.7% female). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic strategies were used to examine the factor structure of the Childhood Community Experiences Scale (CCES) comprised of the Community Risk Scale and the Community Protective Scale. Convergent validity and predictive utility of the CCES with existing measures of individual risk and resilience and adult psychosocial functioning were also examined.

Results: Results indicated a 5-factor solution for the Community Risk Scale and a 6-factor solution for the Community Protective Scale to fit the data best. Further, results suggest the convergent validity and predictive utility of the CCES with measures of adult psychosocial functioning.

Conclusion: This measure allows for a brief, self-report assessment that can be used to assess childhood community-level risk and protective factors.

Keywords: Childhood adversity; Community experiences; Community protection; Community risk; Factor analysis; Resilience.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement: All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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