Adverse childhood experiences among adolescents with emotional and behavioural problems

Adverse childhood experiences (ACE) regard a wide range of negative events occurring during childhood that may lead to physical and mental health problems later in life, including adolescence. Among the rather frequent consequences of ACE are emotional and behavioural problems (EBP). Because of that, it is of high importance to identify potential protective factors in the social context of adolescents experiencing ACE that may protect against these consequences, in order to decrease the negative impact of these adverse events on the healthy development of adolescents. Our findings revealed ACE to be related to EBP among adolescents, with an increasing number of ACE being associated with more EBP. Further, the accumulation of ACE above a certain threshold (three or more) and exposure to specific, parent-related ACE increased the likelihood that adolescents used psychosocial care. Special attention should be therefore paid to those adolescents who have experienced three or more ACE and parent-related ACE, as these may be considered as an at-risk population. Our results also provide further evidence on the degree to which the social context of adolescent modified the associations between ACE and EBP. They underscore the need for coordinated efforts between family, school, community and psychosocial care focused on prevention, early identification, early intervention and risk reduction for adolescents exposed to ACE.