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The Roles of ACEs, Depressive Symptoms, and Mindfulness in Coping for Early Childhood Professionals

Thu, April 8, 11:45am to 12:45pm EDT (11:45am to 12:45pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Introduction: Early childhood professionals’ (ECPs) mental health lays the foundation for high-quality early childhood education (Jennings, 2015). However, exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is often higher in human service professionals, such as ECP’s, than in the general population (Esaki & Larkin, 2013; Hubel, et al., 2020). Increased ACEs are associated with greater risk for depression (Felitti et al., 1998; Ma & Teasdale, 2004). This may negatively impact ECP’s social-emotional competence and their classroom practices by compromising their capability to manage emotions or effectively handle challenging situations (Virmani, et al., 2020). Mindfulness is emerging as a useful tool in regulating emotions (Ortiz & Sibinga, 2017). Increased mindfulness in ECPs is associated with well-being and emotional supportiveness in the classroom (Jennings, 2015). Mindfulness therapy is associated with decreased depression (Williams et al., 2014; Kuyken et al., 2016; Rodrigues et al., 2019). As such, ECPs’ mindfulness as related to mental health and coping reflects a promising area of research.

Aim: We investigated the associations between ECPs’ ACEs, depressive symptoms, and coping strategies (reframing and distraction), and variations in associations according to ECPs’ higher or lower mindfulness.

Methods: The sample included 106 ECPs. ACE’s (Felitti, 1998), depressive symptoms (CESD; Radloff, 1977), and mindfulness (Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale; Cardaciotto, 2008) were assessed at enrollment. ECPs then used a modified ecological momentary assessment method to report on use of reframing (i.e., thinking about a problem in a new way) and distraction (i.e., avoiding a problem), over four days; sum frequencies were calculated. Multi-group path analysis models, using mean splits to identify ECPs higher and lower in mindfulness, were used to assess direct and indirect associations between EPC’s ACES, depressive symptoms, and coping with work-related stressors as moderated by mindfulness.

Results: ACEs were positively related to depressive symptoms regardless of level of mindfulness. For ECPs with greater mindfulness, depressive symptoms were negatively related to coping by reframing and positively related to distraction. For ECPs with lower mindfulness, there were no significant associations between depressive symptoms and either coping strategy. ACES were significantly, positively related to reframing for ECPs with greater mindfulness while there was no association for ECPs with less mindfulness.

Conclusion: ACE exposure was related to greater use of reframing (a constructive coping skill) regardless of depressive symptoms, suggesting that ECPs with prior trauma may rely on cognitive flexibility as a resource. However, ECPs with greater mindfulness and depressive symptoms used reframing less and distraction more (seen as negative coping associated with psychological distress [Turner et al., 2005]). Existing literature suggests that mindfulness may bring awareness of negative emotions, which, in turn, may contribute to rumination (Cardaciotto, et al, 2008). Rumination may be associated with use of distraction as short-term relief from negative thoughts (potentially adaptive in the short term but perhaps not over time). This may be one explanation for the associations between depressive symptoms, less reframing, and more distraction. Examining associations between ACES, depression, and ECPs’ coping has important implications for supporting ECPs’ well-being and, subsequently, high-quality practices.

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