Informing Prevention and Intervention Programs targeting Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) lead to long-term detrimental effects on health (Boullier & Blair, 2017). Prior studies predominantly focused on revealing ACEs consequences or treating ACEs as cumulative risks. The knowledge on the mechanisms of ACEs’ negative influences, and unique impacts of different patterns of ACEs, remain unknown to the field. Criticisms on the current ACEs research suggest that existing studies do not offer clear and actional intervention strategies (McLennan et al., 2020). This symposium integrates psychology, social work, and public health perspectives to inform concrete implications for ACEs prevention and intervention. Using sophisticated statistical models and diverse datasets, findings from this symposium can improve psychosocial functioning in children, adolescents, and young adults who have experienced ACEs. We highlight the urgency for addressing the co-occurrence of ACEs, such as intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment.

Study 1 applies longitudinal design and cross-lagged models to single out the impact of exposure to IPV from child maltreatment on behavioral self-regulation across childhood. Study 2 uses large longitudinal data to identify latent profiles from early childhood ACEs that led to poor social-emotional outcomes in adolescence. The third study builds latent moderated structural equations modeling on a community sample to explore the relationships among child sexual abuse, attachment, and IPV perpetration. Study 4 uses data collected from veteran parents with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic to examine the mediating role of parental pre-mentalization in the relationship between veteran parents’ posttraumatic stress disorder and harsh parenting.

Sub Unit

• Prevention and Interventions

Chairs

• Ying Zhang, Clarkson University

• Xiafei Wang, Syracuse University

Individual Presentations

• Intimate partner violence exposure, child maltreatment, and behavioral self-regulation in childhood: A three-wave cross-lagged study - Presenting Author: Ying Zhang, Clarkson University; Nabiha Madre, Clarkson University

• Child sexual abuse, attachment, and intimate partner violence: A latent moderated structural equations modeling analysis - Presenting Author: Fei Shen, Kean University

• Patterns of Early Childhood Adversity Predict Challenges in Early Adolescence - Zhenyu Zhang, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Presenting Author: Benjamin L Bayly, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

• Veteran parents’ posttraumatic stress disorder and harsh parenting: Parental pre-mentalization as a mediator - Presenting Author: Xiafei Wang, Syracuse University; Qingyang Liu, Syracuse University; Gabriel J Merrin, Syracuse University