Social Inequalities in Early Childhood Adverse Experiences and their Effects on Depression in Adolescence

• In Event: 4167 - Section on Children and Youth Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Children & Youth Roundtable 9: Social Inequalities

Abstract

Family and immediate neighborhood social and economic conditions are critical for early childhood development and exposure to difficult or unstable conditions may have lasting physiological and psychological effects. We use an expanded version of indicators of childhood adverse experiences (ACEs) that includes multiple measures of economic difficulty and family structure instability to explore how ACEs cluster together in early childhood (birth-age 5). We use a novel method of community detection to characterize key clusters of ACEs. We further assess social disparities (race, social class and gender) in the prevalence of these clusters; and whether these early childhood ACE clusters are associated with depression during adolescence. Using a population-based sample of adolescents ages 11-17 (N=1334) and caregiver reports of 34 early childhood experiences, we find evidence for 4 key clusters of ACEs characterized by: family economic hardship, exposure to violence/death, residential instability and family instability. We also find significant differences in the likelihood of experiencing these clusters by race and social class (but not gender), and that some, but not all ACE clusters, are associated with increased rates of depressive symptoms during adolescence.

Authors

• Kammi Schmeer, The Ohio State University

• Ashley Ostroot, The Ohio State University

• Jake Tarrence, Ohio State University

• Christopher R. Browning, Ohio State University