Photo Credit: Yurii Karvatskyi
The following is a summary of “Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences Among Adolescents,” published in the October 2024 issue of Pediatrics by Swedo et al.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are preventable events with lasting negative impacts associated with poor health and well-being in adulthood.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to estimate the self-reported prevalence of ACEs among high school students.
They used cross-sectional data from 16 states that included core ACE questions in the 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). The survey estimated the prevalence of 8 individual ACEs and cumulative ACEs (0, 1, 2–3, ≥4) by demographic characteristics (sex, race and ethnicity, age, sexual orientation).
The results showed that emotional abuse (65.8%), household poor mental health (36.1%), and physical abuse (32.5%) had the highest prevalence; ACEs were common, with 80.5% of adolescents reporting at least 1 ACE and 22.4% reporting ≥4 ACEs. Adolescents who identified as female (27.7%), non-Hispanic multiracial (33.7%), non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native (27.1%), gay or lesbian (36.5%), bisexual (42.1%), or questioning (36.5%) had the highest rates of experiencing ≥4 ACEs.
They concluded that self-reported ACEs among adolescents were more prevalent than parent-reported estimates, with notable demographic disparities.
