Development of Externalizing Behaviors in Chicago Youth Exposed to Adverse Childhood Experiences

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

In 1995, the CDC-Kaiser Permanente begun one of the largest studies on the effects of childhood abuse and neglect on later-life health outcomes called Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. The questionnaire resulting from this study has widely become known as the ACE score, measured through ten dichotomous items gauging individual’s childhood experiences relating to physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect, as well as other dysfunction in the family. Studies have since consistently shown that the higher the ACE score, more later-life health problems the individuals suffer. Using data from all three waves of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN), the present study examines the long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences on subsequent externalizing behaviors. The data is stratified by gender and a propensity score matching is employed separately to match a group of males and a group of females reporting low vs. high ACE scores (a typical cut of line reported in the literature is ACE score of 4 or higher). Group-based trajectory modeling techniques are then utilized to estimate the longitudinal developmental trajectories of externalizing behaviors independently for the high-ACE score and low-ACE score males and females and compared to each other.

Authors

• Henriikka Weir, University of Colorado Colorado Springs

• Catherine Kaukinen, University of Central Florida