TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2023//
TI  - Approaches for measuring cumulative childhood adversity: a study of youth from 5 sub-Saharan African countries
JO  - Child abuse and neglect
A1  - Gilbert, Leah K.
A1  - Matthews, Sarah
A1  - Dube, Shanta R.
A1  - Annor, Francis B.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include forms of abuse, neglect, and household stressors that are potentially early life traumatic experiences. A summed integer count of ACEs is often used to examine cumulative childhood adversity (CCA) but has limitations. <br><br>OBJECTIVES: The current study tests two additional methods for measuring CCA using large samples of youth in low- and middle-income countries. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Pooled data were analyzed from a multi-country, nationally representative sample of youth aged 18-24 years (N = 11,498) who completed the Violence Against Children and Youth Surveys (VACS) in Lesotho, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Namibia, and Mozambique. <br><br>METHODS: ACE exposures included: physical, sexual, and emotional violence; witnessing interparental violence; witnessing community violence; orphanhood. CCA was operationalized using an ACE score, ACE impact (standardized regression coefficients from outcome severity), and ACE exposure context (household; intimate partner; peer; community). Associations between CCA with mental distress (MD) were examined by sex using p ≤ 0.05 as the significance level. <br><br>RESULTS: Exposure to ≥3 ACEs was associated with MD (p < 0.05) for both sexes. Among females, all contexts contributed to MD except peer ACEs (p < 0.05). Among males, household and community ACEs contributed to MD. High-impact ACEs were associated with MD both sexes. ACE context was the best-fitting model for these data. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The challenges operationalizing CCA warrant continued research to ensure adversity type, severity, and context lead to validly assessing ACEs impact on child wellbeing.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0145-2134
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106542
ID  - ref1
ER  -