Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been associated with maladaptive outcomes, including difficulties with emotion regulation (ER). ER difficulties, in turn, increase risk for experiencing physical and mental health problems. Parental emotion socialization is one factor that has been associated with ER skills across development. No known studies, however, have examined whether parental emotion socialization moderates the relationship between ACEs and ER difficulties. In the current study, undergraduates (N = 678) completed questionnaires about their history of ACEs, parental emotion socialization experiences, and current ER difficulties. Correlational results indicated a positive correlation between ACEs and ER difficulties. Results of the hierarchical multiple regression analyses found a significant moderation effect only within the context of distress reaction (DR) parenting. Results suggested that the link between ACEs and adult ER difficulties was stronger in the context of low to moderate DR parenting and relatively weak in circumstances of high DR parenting.

Social health is an important predictor of overall health. Yet, it is an often neglected area of research. Strikingly, social connectedness is associated with a 50% reduction in risk of early death. While a plethora of research evidence supports the beneficial impact of nature exposure on physical and mental health, literature regarding the beneficial impact of nature exposure on social health is scant. In fact, no research to date has investigated the causal influence of nature exposure on social motivation, a construct comprised here of three measures (State Motivation to Foster Social Connections, State Positive Affect, and State Anxiety). The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to examine the effects of virtual nature exposure on state social motivation, and 2) to investigate adverse childhood experiences as a moderator of those effects. In this online study, adult participants (N = 444) aged 18 to 58 were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental video conditions (wilderness nature exposure, urban non-nature exposure, indoor non-nature exposure). After watching a 15-minute video, participants completed measures related to state social motivation. Results revealed a significant main effect of nature exposure on state social motivation. However, the effects of nature exposure on state social motivation were not significantly moderated by adverse childhood experiences. Results suggest that nature exposure may have a positive impact on the development and maintenance of social connections and should be explored further as a social health intervention aimed at improving overall health.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are a certain set of abuse household dysfunction experiences that many children in the United States experience. Children who experience multiple ACEs are more likely to have negative mental and physical health issues as they grow older. These outcomes include ADHD, depression, cancer, heart disease, and early death. In this study, I examined the effectiveness of child centered play therapy (CCPT), a developmentally appropriate treatment modality, with children who have experienced two or more ACEs and who are also demonstrating inattention and impulsivity symptoms. Participants were 34 students from five Title 1 elementary schools in the southwest United States (28 males and 6 females; age range 5-8 years old with a mean age of 6.12). In the sample, participants were comprised of 29.4% African American (n = 10), 38.2% Caucasian (n = 13), 17.6% Hispanic/Latino (n = 6), and 14.7% identified as biracial (n = 5). Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group that received 16 CCPT 30-minute sessions twice a week (n = 17) or a waitlist control group (n = 17) that received treatment at the conclusion of the study. Using a factorial ANOVA, results indicated statistically significant improvement of CCPT treatment group over waitlist control group on the ADDES-4 School Total and the DOF Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Problems scale indicating that CCPT was an appropriate treatment model for children who have experienced ACEs and inattention and impulsivity symptoms.

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ACEs are traumatic life events occurring during childhood that can have negative effects. Common mental disorders that are diagnosed in childhood are attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), behavior disorders, anxiety and depression. The associations between ACEs and such problems in children have not been significantly examined. There are protective factors that can help reduce the effects of exposure to ACEs that have not been fully explored. The purpose of this research study was to examine: 1) the prevalence of mental health outcomes in children; 2) the associations between ACEs, resilience and mental health outcomes; and 3) the role of resiliency as a moderating variable between ACEs and mental health outcomes. A secondary data analysis utilizing data from the 2018 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) was used to examine the proposed aims. The study population consisted of children between the ages of 3 and 17. Chi-square analyses were utilized, and logistic regression models were constructed. Weighted prevalence estimates were calculated. 8.6%, 6.9%, 8.0% and 3.7% currently had ADHD, behavioral disorders, anxiety and depression. The prevalence of each disorder was higher for older age, Whites, public insurance, single parent homes or homes without parents, caregivers with mental health problems and non-users of medical home. Children exposed to 4 or more ACEs had greater odds of ADHD (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]= 2.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.52-2.72), behavioral disorders (aOR: 2.47; CI: 1.81-3.37), anxiety (aOR: 2.66; CI: 2.00-3.53) and the strongest relationship was seen with depression (aOR: 4.53; CI: 3.13-6.54). Individual resilience, family resilience and community resilience were associated with decreased odds of mental health outcomes and the strongest relationship was seen with individual resilience. There were significant interactions between exposure to ACEs and child resilience for ADHD (aOR: 0.14; CI: 0.08-0.23), current behavioral disorders (aOR: 0.10; CI: 0.06-0.16), anxiety and (aOR: 0.21; CI: 0.13-0.35) depression (aOR: 0.24; CI: 0.13-0.43) as well as significant interactions between ACE exposure and community resilience for depression (aOR: 0.25; CI: 0.10-0.61). The findings of this research have implications for the improvement of mental health diagnosis, promotion of resilient measures and future research.

Social health is an important predictor of overall health. Yet, it is an often neglected area of research. Strikingly, social connectedness is associated with a 50% reduction in risk of early death. While a plethora of research evidence supports the beneficial impact of nature exposure on physical and mental health, literature regarding the beneficial impact of nature exposure on social health is scant. In fact, no research to date has investigated the causal influence of nature exposure on social motivation, a construct comprised here of three measures (State Motivation to Foster Social Connections, State Positive Affect, and State Anxiety). The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to examine the effects of virtual nature exposure on state social motivation, and 2) to investigate adverse childhood experiences as a moderator of those effects. In this online study, adult participants (N = 444) aged 18 to 58 were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental video conditions (wilderness nature exposure, urban non-nature exposure, indoor non-nature exposure). After watching a 15-minute video, participants completed measures related to state social motivation. Results revealed a significant main effect of nature exposure on state social motivation. However, the effects of nature exposure on state social motivation were not significantly moderated by adverse childhood experiences. Results suggest that nature exposure may have a positive impact on the development and maintenance of social connections and should be explored further as a social health intervention aimed at improving overall health.

An abundance of research has implicated socioeconomic disadvantage as a major risk factor for increased rates of morbidity and mortality worldwide. While advances in science, medicine, and technology have enabled a positive trend in health outcomes over the previous two decades, individuals of lower socioeconomic status have experienced negligible improvements in health and longevity. Furthermore, individuals of lower socioeconomic status face higher risks of mental health disorders than their higher socioeconomic status counterparts. In order to improve methods of intervention, it is important to understand how the roots of these issues are cultivated during childhood. Socioeconomic status is operationalized in multiple ways, including objective measures at both the household and neighborhood levels such as income, education, occupation, employment status, and single-parent status, as well as subjective measures such as perceived social status. This work explores the relationships between exposure to childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and the development of psychopathology. It reviews the literature for impacts of lower socioeconomic status during childhood on both internalizing (mood and anxiety) and externalizing (behavioral and substance use) disorders. Overall, mental health disorders constitute a significant proportion of the worldwide health burden, affecting one in four adults across the global population, including one in five adults and one in two adolescents in the United States. These staggering prevalence rates illuminate the importance of better understanding the mechanisms by which mental health illnesses emerge. Childhood exposure to socioeconomic deprivation has been identified as a robust contributing factor to the increased risk of psychopathology development. Exposure to socioeconomic disadvantage increases the risk for mood disorders such as major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, bipolar I and II disorder, cyclothymic disorder; anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and specific phobias; behavioral disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; and substance use disorders such as alcohol and tobacco use. These conditions can disrupt normal growth and development; cause significant impairment in social, academic, and occupational environments; and create tremendous distress in important areas of daily functioning. An ecobiodevelopmental model reveals how the interplay of biological factors, such as genetic inheritance and physiological adaptations/disruptions, with ecological factors, such as the social and physical environment, occurs continuously across the entire life span from the prenatal period through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood to drive development and the evolution of individual health and disease. Application of this approach helps to explain how genetic predispositions interact with exposure to poverty to cultivate an environment more prone to adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences are stressors occurring prior to the age of 18 that can be threatening or harmful emotionally or physically, which can include traumatic or potentially traumatic experiences such as neglect and abuse. Examples include socioeconomic hardship, racial/ethnic discrimination, parental death, separation from parents, divorce, neighborhood violence, parental mental illness, abuse, neglect, parental substance abuse, violence and criminality in the home, and life-threatening physical illness. Adverse childhood experiences promote toxic stress, which occurs from distressing situations high in magnitude, duration, or frequency without protective, buffering adult relationships to help the child cope. Toxic stress is characterized by an overloading of the body’s normal physiologic response mechanisms, which can have adverse long-term consequences through brain circuitry alterations and physiologic disruptions of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis occurring during sensitive, critical periods of development. Toxic stress-induced alterations can occur in brain regions such as the hippocampus, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex, which are important in mood control, anxiety, stress coping, decision-making, and self-regulation. Self-regulation is a critical mediator in the link between childhood deprivation and subsequent psychopathology, as deficits in self-regulation increases the risk of both internalizing and externalizing disorders. In summation, the ecobiodevelopmental model is a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates developmental science constructs of toxic stress and self-regulation with ecology, neuroscience, and life course sciences to supply promising explanations for the underlying mechanisms linking childhood poverty to mental illnesses.

Within the past two decades, research on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) spurred by the seminal Felitti (1998) study has gained significant momentum. Research has shown that childhood adversity impacts development across the lifespan, and it has been linked to heightened risk for both physical and mental health difficulties. Depression symptoms is one such outcome that has been associated with ACE exposure. In examining the pathways through which ACEs impact later development, the literature indicates emotion regulation may be a potential mediator between ACEs and depression outcomes. While understanding etiology of depression and risk factors that contribute to symptomology is important, it is also important to investigate factors which may buffer against depression and build resilience. Social support may be a protective environmental factor that could mitigate heightened risk within populations of individuals with ACE exposure. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the role of social support as a protective factor against depression in those who have experienced ACEs nested within the model where emotion regulation acts as a mediator between ACE exposure and later depressive symptoms. In this study, undergraduate participants (N = 766) at a southeastern university completed self-report questionnaires which evaluated ACEs, emotion regulation difficulties, perceived social support, and depressive symptoms. In the current study, it is hypothesized that difficulties in emotion regulation will mediate the link between ACEs and later depressive symptoms (model 1), social support will act as a protective factor against depression in the pathway between difficulties in emotion regulation and depression (model 2), and social support will have a greater buffering effect in individuals who have greater severity of ACE exposure (model 3). Mediation (model 1) and moderated mediation (model 2) analyses will be conducted using Hayes PROCESS macro. For all PROCESS models, bootstrapping frequencies will be set at 5,000 and used to generate a 95% confidence interval. The PROCESS bootstrapping methods entail a statistical process of extracting, resampling, and replacement of cases within a dataset. Additional follow-up moderated moderation analyses (model 3) will be conducted using Hayes PROCESS macro if the moderated mediation model is found to be significant.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs, are a major public health concern. ACEs are defined as stressful or traumatic events in early life that range from parental separation to all forms of abuse and neglect, as well as household dysfunction (e.g., living in a home with substance misuse). The current body of scholarly literature shows that ACEs have long lasting effects on both physical and mental health through a person’s life. Research also illustrates a dose-response relationship between the number of ACEs and the number of risk behaviors, such as substance misuse, that a person may exhibit. Quality of life refers to a person’s self-perceived well-being and includes mental, emotional, physical, and sexual health. Quality of life, synonymous with well-being is associated with numerous health benefits including reduced risk of disease, better immune function, and increased life expectancy. This study seeks to determine if quality of life is a protective factor against substance misuse in adults who report ACEs. In line with the current body of knowledge, we hypothesize that adults within the study sample with a higher number of ACEs will exhibit higher rates of tobacco use, alcohol use, and drug use. We also hypothesize that participants with ACEs who rate a higher quality of life score will be less likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or drugs; as compared to those who rate a lower quality of life. Participants (N=766, age 18-55) were recruited through the REACH (Religion, Emotions, and Current Health) survey study. Data on ACEs will be collected from the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Questionnaire which measures the number of traumatic experiences during the first eighteen years of life. Data on substance use will be collected via the Tobacco Questionnaire dichotomously (yes or no), the AUDIT scale on alcohol use which measures the frequency and quantity of consumption, and the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST) which measures drug use in the last twelve months. Quality of Life will be measured using the World Health Organization Quality of Life WHOQOL-BREF. Quality of life will also be examined using two subscales, overall quality of life and perceived social support. All data was collected via self-reporting. Bivariate and multivariate analyses will be conducted using SPSS. To examine the potential moderating effect of quality of life, a hierarchical multiple regression will be conducted, specifically the simple moderation from the PROCESS macro for SPSS. We predict that those who perceive a higher quality of life, despite early life adversity, will report less frequency in alcohol, tobacco, and drug consumption. Conversely, we predict that those who perceive a lower quality of life will exhibit higher rates of health-related risk behaviors, specifically substance misuse.

Exposure to violence and dysfunction in childhood is a major public health concern. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study demonstrated that childhood maltreatment and family dysfunction impact adult health, contributing to risk behaviors, infectious and chronic disease, and premature death. South Africa (SA) has one of the highest rates of violence and family dysfunction globally, and those living in townships are suspected to be disproportionately affected. Munsieville, the oldest undeveloped township in SA, has reported high rates of violence in the community. This study aimed evaluate the association between a history of childhood sexual abuse and various forms of risky sexual behavior. Data were collected by a team of researchers from the College of Public Health as part of a pilot study of ACEs in Munsieville. Self-report of sexual abuse before age 18 was used to compute the independent variable, which ranged from 0-1, with 0 implying the absence of any type of childhood sexual abuse and 1 implying one or more forms of childhood sexual abuse. Age and gender were deemed potential confounders. Two binary l outcomes representing forms of risky sexual behavior were considered, self-report of transactional sex and substance use before sexual activity. Descriptive analysis examined the frequency of childhood sexual abuse by each category of the study outcomes. Two multiple logistic regression models were individually constructed to examine the association between childhood sexual abuse and transactional sex, and substance use before sexual activity. Odds ratios and corresponding 95% confidence intervals were reported. Findings of the descriptive analysis indicated that 8.83% (43) of the sample reported participating in transactional sex, 22.4% (101) reported using either drugs or alcohol before sex. Moreover, 21.6% (103) reported experiencing one or more forms of childhood sexual abuse. A positive statistically significant association between self-reported childhood sexual abuse and transactional sex was identified (OR: 3.45; 95% CI: 1.71 – 6.98), illustrating that those who experienced any type of child sexual abuse had a 3.5 times as likely to report transactional sex compared to those who did not experience sexual abuse during childhood. Childhood sexual abuse was also significantly associated with substance use before sexual activity (OR: 1.93; 95% CI: 1.11 – 3.34). The study findings suggests a need for further research to understand the long term effects of child sexual abuse. Further, future public health interventions aimed at reducing sexual abuse and violence inflicted on South African children should be employed as means to improve their wellbeing in adulthood.