A Replication Study of the Benevolent Childhood Experiences (BCEs) Scale in Minoritized, Marginalized Pregnant Individuals

• In Event: Positive Childhood Experiences as Resilience Mechanisms Against Adverse Childhood Experiences for Adult and Intergenerational Health

Abstract

Research and practice are increasingly focused on the role of positive and benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) in counteracting and preventing the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The present study provides a replication and extension of the original study that documented that higher levels of BCEs were associated with lower levels of mental health symptoms and stressful life events in diverse, low-income pregnant individuals (Narayan et al., 2018). Hypotheses expected that higher levels of BCEs would predict lower levels of prenatal and postnatal depression and PTSD symptoms after accounting for women’s ACEs. As an extension of the original study, hypotheses also expected that BCEs findings would hold after also accounting for pregnant women’s contemporaneous sociodemographic stress and social support.

Participants were 175 ethnically-diverse women (M = 28.07 years, SD = 5.68, range = 18-40; 38.9% White, 25.7% Latina, 16.6% Black, 12.0% biracial/multiracial, 6.8% other) recruited during pregnancy and followed through postpartum. They completed measures on ACEs and BCEs, each comprised of 10-item checklists on childhood adversity and positive childhood experiences, respectively (CDC, 2022; Narayan et al., 2018), and sociodemographic stress during pregnancy. Sociodemographic stress was comprised of cumulative risk score of having less than a high school education (or equivalent; 19.4%), being currently unemployed (52.6%), and living below the federal poverty line (42.3%). Women also completed standardized, validated measures of mental health symptoms (depression and PTSD symptoms from the Edinburgh Pre/Postnatal Depression Scale; Cox et al. 1987; and the PCL-5, Weathers et al., 2013) and social support during both pregnancy and postpartum. Social support was assessed from the Five-Minute Speech Sample (FMSS; Magaña et al., 1986) adapted and validated to assess social support from the baby’s other biological parent and rated by trained coders (River et al., 2020). For analyses, total ACEs were separated into subscales for cumulative childhood maltreatment versus exposure to family/household dysfunction (Narayan et al., 2017). Hierarchical linear regressions on prenatal and postnatal depression and PTSD symptoms included demographic covariates in the first step, BCEs in second step, childhood maltreatment and family dysfunction in the third step, and contemporaneous sociodemographic stress and social support in the final step.

Consistent with the original BCEs study, higher levels of BCEs were associated with lower levels of prenatal PTSD symptoms (but not prenatal depression symptoms) over and above the effects of the two ACEs subtypes, childhood maltreatment and exposure to family dysfunction, and contemporaneous sociodemographic risk. In this model, higher levels of social support also significantly predicted lower levels of prenatal PTSD symptoms. Higher levels of BCEs also marginally significantly predicted lower levels of postnatal depression symptoms (but not postnatal PTSD symptoms) after accounting for both types of ACEs, sociodemographic stress during pregnancy, and prenatal depression symptoms.
This study extends our understanding of the role of positive childhood experiences in promoting more resilient functioning across the perinatal period, even in the context of ACEs. Findings also demonstrate the ways in which positive childhood and contemporaneous experiences may work together to promote resilient functioning into adulthood.

Authors

• Jillian Merrick, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Angela J. Narayan, University of Denver