Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events experienced by children and adolescents ages zero to 17 that can have a long-lasting effect on a person's overall mental and physical health. Recent studies have shown that the rate of students entering college with one or more ACEs has increased, potentially resulting in a lower rate of college completion. The purpose of this study is to gain insight into how college students with multiple ACEs navigate the college experience despite their barriers. College students are a unique population due to their range of diversity in every aspect of a student's life, including race/ethnicity, number of ACEs, level of resiliency, and life experiences. Using a mixed-methods strategy, a cross-sectional design will be applied for a set of initial surveys to establish demographic information of the college student body. Then, a qualitative/narrative design will be used for students with multiple ACEs (four or more) to gain perspective of their college experience, including their resiliency and use of resources. By using a mixed-method design, the results will be able to highlight a percentage of the current college population in relation to ACEs and gain insight into the college interventions/resources from the point of view of students. Research has proven that ACEs can create potential barriers for college students when pursuing their college degrees. However, more research needs to emphasize student resiliency, social support, and the utilization of interventions.

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Childhood adversity is linked with a variety of negative outcomes including suicide attempts and personality disorders, most commonly Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). A core feature of BPD, emotion dysregulation is often reported following early childhood adversity and contributes to both suicidal ideation and attempts. One explanation for the development of emotion dysregulation within BPD, is the biosocial model, which states that there must be an interaction between childhood emotional vulnerability and parental invalidation. Recent literature suggests that this interaction may not be necessary. Thus, the current study extended previous literature by examining childhood risk factors (i.e., ACES, parental invalidation, and childhood emotional vulnerability) as individual and interactive effects in predicting both BPD and suicide directly, as well as indirectly predicting suicide through BPD. Overall, the results indicated that all three risk factors individually predicted BPD and suicide risk and that the biosocial interaction also significantly predicts BPD and suicide risk.

The past few decades of research support both the impact of trauma (e.g., abuse, neglect, violence) particularly in childhood, and the ability to lessen its effects through the implementation of trauma-informed care (TIC). We have successfully developed a communitywide system of TIC enhancing collaboration and common language across sectors and organizations within sectors. The collaboration involved more than 100 individuals from more than 45 organizations including healthcare, education, children’s services, the faith community, behavioral health providers, criminal justice, law enforcement, private businesses, and others. The process for developing a system of care has been evaluated through community surveys and focus groups, verifying its ability to increase understanding and implementation of TIC principles, replication in a nearby city, and the development of an instructional toolkit to aid other communities in creating such systems of care.

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Risky sexual behaviors (RSB) have the potential to negatively impact individuals by increasing the risk of mental health issues, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and unwanted pregnancies. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental health disorders, such as anxiety, PTSD, and depression, have been known to increase RSB. The purpose of this study was to see if these mental health disorders mediate the relationship between ACEs and RSB. Participants (n = 342, mean age = 32) were recruited through social media to complete an online questionnaire. While history of ACEs significantly predicted engagement in RSB as well as all three of the mental health measures, none of the three measures of mental health emerged as a significant mediator of the relationship between ACEs and engagement in RSB (depression: b = .0060, SE = .0568, 95% CI[-.1175, .1148]; anxiety: (b = -.0136, SE = .0565, 95% CI[-.1393, .0904]; PTSD: (b = .1131, SE = .0807, 95% CI[-.0313, .2867]. Ultimately, this research showed that the history of ACEs exerts a strong, direct effect on engaging in RSB, and that in this sample, mental health symptoms are not sufficient to explain this relationship. Therefore, other factors should be explored as possible mechanisms maintaining this relationship. Furthermore, future research efforts should extend this exploration to young participants that may be more likely to participate in RSB.

Parents’ adverse childhood experiences in relation to parent-child emotion socialization Objective: Parents have an integral role in a child’s development of important emotional and psychosocial processes through emotion socialization. The goal of this paper is to examine the presence of adverse childhood experiences during the parents’ childhood and adolescence alongside the parents’ responses to their child’s emotional expression. The impact of adverse childhood experiences on a parent’s ability to socialize their child’s emotions is a key factor in the continued objective of cultivating positive parent-child interaction and improving adolescent mental health. Methods: Participants were 165 adolescents and their parents. Adolescent participants had an age range of13 to 17 years, (M=14.56, SD= 1.34) and were 33% female. Participants completed several standard questionnaires as part of a larger online survey. Adolescents reported on how their parents typically respond to their negative emotions (Emotions as Child Questionnaire; O’Neal & Magai, 2005), and their parents reported on their exposure to adverse childhood events (ACE’s questionnaire). Results: Mediation analyses tested the study hypotheses regarding whether parent emotion dysregulation mediated the link between parent ACEs and parent emotion socialization responses (reward, punish). Covariates included parent and child gender, parent race, and parent education level. In the first model examining reward responses, there was an overall significant effect on parent reward and punishment responses. There was a significant indirect effect of parent ACEs on parent reward and parent punishment responses with parent emotion dysregulation as the mediator. Conclusion: Together, these findings suggest the value and necessity of healthy and stable emotion regulation, especially in parents. The present study shows a need for the recognition of the impact that a parent's ability to successfully regulate their own emotions has on their ability to effectively respond to their children’s emotions. Additionally, stable parent child emotion socialization outcomes improve the child’s ability to self- regulate emotions which ultimately makes an insurmountable impact on children’s mental health throughout the lifespan.

Exposure to more types of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) has been associated with a greater likelihood of general and sexual offending behaviors. However, few studies exist that consider both the impact of varied ACE exposures and community correlates on pathways to offending behaviors in adolescents who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviors. The current study examined these pathways using data collected from archival records of male adolescents (N= 285) who had received treatment for sexually abusive behavior at a youth facility. Structural equation modeling revealed a three-factor model for ACEs, which included: nonsexual abuse and neglect; household dysfunction; and sexual abuse and more passive indicators of sexual boundary problems in the home of origin. Direction and significance of paths between ACEs and the onset, persistence, and nature of maladaptive behaviors differed. Household dysfunction was related to an earlier onset and more persistent nonsexual delinquent offending and contact sexual offending. Conversely, sexual abuse and exposure to sexual boundary problems were associated with an earlier onset of sexually abusive behavior as well as indicators of adolescent-onset, less persistent, and nonviolent delinquency. Nonsexual abuse and neglect were uniquely associated with contact sexual offending. Thus, these findings suggest variations in ACE exposures differentially influence the development, severity, and continuance of nonsexual delinquent and sexually abusive behaviors among these youths. Socioecological variables associated with participants’ counties of origin, including social and economic environment and percentage of rurality, were not retained as covariates due to producing a poor model fit for the data. Additional study with regard to the role of community characteristics on delinquent and sexual offending behaviors is warranted.

In 1998, a seminal study on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and subsequent health risks catapulted ACEs and the study questionnaire into the zeitgeist. However, its childhood sexual abuse (CSA) item is problematic as it requires the perpetrator have been 5-years or older than the victim. To assess whether some survivors’ CSA is not identified by the current item, whether their exclusion prevents access to services requiring a four-threshold ACE score, and how their health outcomes compared to other CSA groups and controls, an international sample of 974 women completed an online survey assessing their current health and CSA history using the original item and an experimental item without the 5-year modifier. Results indicated many CSA survivors are not identified by a 5-year modifier, exclusion has service implications for some, and on most variables, they had increased adverse health outcomes compared to controls. Means of assessing CSA must be thoughtfully revised.

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