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TOPLINE:

Adults who had more positive childhood experiences (PCEs) were more likely to report better mental, physical, and socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood, regardless of exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers analyzed data from a survey to evaluate whether PCEs and ACEs were associated with health and socioeconomic outcomes in adulthood.
• They included data from 18,773 adults who completed two modules of a survey conducted in four states between 2015 and 2020.
• PCEs were assessed using seven questions about supportive relationships, family stability, and community engagement exposures and were categorized as low to high.
• ACEs were evaluated using a 10-item index, capturing abuse, violence, and household dysfunction; adults were grouped based on the number of such experiences.
• Researchers assessed 20 self-reported outcomes, including college attendance, household income, smoking, chronic diseases, and poor physical or mental health.

TAKEAWAY:

• Adults with low exposure to PCEs were three times more likely to report more ACEs and 10.87 times more likely to report four or more ACEs in an adjusted analysis (P < .01 for both).
• Adults with medium exposure to PCEs were more likely to attend college, earn at least $50,000 a year, and report lower rates of depression, regardless of exposure to ACEs.
• Among adults who reported any ACE, those with high exposure to PCEs were less likely to report tobacco use, chronic diseases, and poor health than those with low scores.
• Population-level modeling suggested that maximizing exposure to PCEs could have prevented up to 36% of cases of depression and 30% of cases of poor mental health.

IN PRACTICE:

“[The study] results suggest that pediatric providers may consider including the identification, celebration, and promotion of positive childhood experiences as important elements of modern practice, building on the themes of the 2021 American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement on toxic stress prevention and the Bright Futures Guidelines for Health Supervision,” the researchers wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Maria Aslam, PhD, MPH, of the CDC in Atlanta. It was published online on May 13 in Pediatrics.

LIMITATIONS:

The study was cross-sectional, so it could not prove cause and effect. All data were self-reported, which may have introduced recall bias.

DISCLOSURES:

Four authors worked on the research as part of their official federal government duties. Two authors reported receiving support from the JPB Foundation.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.