Approaches for measuring cumulative childhood adversity: A study of youth from 5 sub-Saharan African countries.
Child Abuse Negl
; 150: 106542, 2024 04.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-37996356
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include forms of abuse, neglect, and household stressors that are potentially early life traumatic experiences. A summed integer count of ACEs is often used to examine cumulative childhood adversity (CCA) but has limitations.OBJECTIVES:
The current study tests two additional methods for measuring CCA using large samples of youth in low- and middle-income countries. PARTICIPANTS ANDSETTING:
Pooled data were analyzed from a multi-country, nationally representative sample of youth aged 18-24 years (N = 11,498) who completed the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) in Lesotho, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Namibia, and Mozambique.METHODS:
ACE exposures included physical, sexual, and emotional violence; witnessing interparental violence; witnessing community violence; orphanhood. CCA was operationalized using an ACE score, ACE impact (standardized regression coefficients from outcome severity), and ACE exposure context (household; intimate partner; peer; community). Associations between CCA with mental distress (MD) were examined by sex using p ≤ 0.05 as the significance level.RESULTS:
Exposure to ≥3 ACEs was associated with MD (p < 0.05) for both sexes. Among females, all contexts contributed to MD except peer ACEs (p < 0.05). Among males, household and community ACEs contributed to MD. High-impact ACEs were associated with MD both sexes. ACE context was the best-fitting model for these data.CONCLUSIONS:
The challenges operationalizing CCA warrant continued research to ensure adversity type, severity, and context lead to validly assessing ACEs impact on child wellbeing.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Maus-Tratos Infantis
/
Experiências Adversas da Infância
/
Transtornos Mentais
Limite:
Adolescent
/
Child
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
País/Região como assunto:
Africa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Child Abuse Negl
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article