What Happens Behind Closed Doors Builds Up Behind Closed Doors

• In Event: Children and Youth Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 2: School Violence, Victimization, and Institutional Discipline

Abstract

Using the Future Families and Wellbeing study, this paper introduces a Cumulate Child Exposure (CCE) which cumulates exposures to various household traumas, including parental substance abuse, parental incarceration, domestic violence, and verbal and physical abuse, from birth on instances of child delinquency at ages 9 and 15. This approach stands in contrast to the well-known Adverse Childhood Exposure (ACEs) approach, which documents singular exposures to trauma instead of considering frequency and intensity.
Initial findings show that a 1% accumulation in trauma from birth to age 5 was associated with a nearly 30% significant increase in child delinquency at age 9. Meanwhile, a one-point increase in an ACEs score at age 5 was associated with about a 5% increase in delinquency at age 9. A 1% cumulation in trauma from birth to age 5 was associated with a 18.7% increase in child delinquency at age 15 while a one-point increase in an ACEs score at age 5 was associated with a 14.6% increase in child delinquency at age 15. These findings suggest that a continuum of exposure to violence may provide a more
Furthermore, when using perceived levels of neighborhood violence and collective efficacy, the associations for child delinquency at ages 9 and 15 are small and not significant compared to the associations with household trauma.

Author

• Varsha Menon, Princeton University