Adverse childhood experiences and health risk behaviours among adolescents and young adults: evidence from India

Abstract

Background Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic and stressful events that occur in childhood. These experiences at home, school, or in the community may damage the cognitive health and emotional skills of children and adolescents. Objective The present study examines the association between Adverse childhood experiences and risky health behaviour indicators while controlling other background characteristics among boys and girls. This study also assesses outcomes in the aggregate to estimate the impact of cumulative adversity on various risky health behavioural factors among boys and girls among adolescents and young adults (age group 13–23) in India. Data and methods Data were drawn from the second wave of the “Understanding the lives of adolescents and young adults (2018–2019)” survey. Bivariate and logistic regression analysis were conducted to fulfill the objective. Results The findings show that nearly 30% of boys and 10% of girls had violent behaviour. Substance use prevalence was much higher among boys (34.11%) than girls (6.65%). More boys had negative gender attitudes. The majority of the study participants had multiple ACEs. Boys who experienced more than three or more childhood adversity had two times higher odds (OR: 2.04; CI: 1.01–4.16) of the early sexual debut, while the same figure for girls was thirteen times (OR: 13.13; CI: 3.95–43.69) than their male counterparts. Conclusion The study findings underlined the need for implementing outcome-oriented approaches to adolescents’ health care and behavioural risks. Therefore, identifying and intervening with adolescents and young adults who are at the highest risk of engaging in risky behaviors early in life may reduce the risk of these behaviors persisting into adulthood. In order to avoid health risk behavior in later stages among adolescents and young adults, policymakers need to focus on ACEs as risk factors and take action to reduce this burden. A potential model could be to create awareness among family members, caregivers, and communities to be more empathetic toward the children.

Examining the relationship between risky sexual behavior and suicidal thoughts among unmarried adolescents in India

“…Studies have attributed this gendered division to higher depressive symptoms among adolescent during the post-pubertal period 49 . Further, to investigate the gendered division in the area of early sexual debut among Indian adolescents, one of our studies recently found that early sexual debut is commonplace among adolescent boys who have a reported family history of substance users 50 . Earlier, research has also found that individuals who indicated severity and frequency of maltreatment were often more prone to violent behavior, early sexual debut, and substance abuse 51 – 53 .…”

Adverse childhood experiences in mental health of young adults: An exploratory study from Delhi-NCR, India

“…These findings are particularly important because only a few studies, thus far, have explored the association of ACEs with health outcomes among Indian populations (Fernandes et al, 2021; M. T. Kumar et al, 2019; Maurya & Maurya, 2023).…”

“…However, most ACE studies have been conducted in high-income countries (Hughes et al, 2017). This area of research has received little scientific attention in low-and middle-income countries, including India (Fernandes et al, 2021;Hughes et al, 2017; M. T. Kumar et al, 2019;Maurya & Maurya, 2023).…”

“…As a result, Indian societies remain largely trauma-uninformed (Fernandes et al, 2021; M. T. Kumar et al, 2019; Maurya & Maurya, 2023). Further, most ACE studies have restricted themselves to understanding the relationship between overall ACE scores and health outcomes, leaving the relationship between individual ACEs and health outcomes underexplored (Merrick et al, 2017).…”

“…In fact, in the Indian context, some forms of ACEs are internalized cultural norms and are seen as a part of the normal growing-up process (Fernandes et al, 2021; M. T. Kumar et al, 2019). As a result, Indian societies remain largely trauma-uninformed (Fernandes et al, 2021; M. T. Kumar et al, 2019;Maurya & Maurya, 2023). Further, most ACE studies have restricted themselves to understanding the relationship between overall ACE scores and health outcomes, leaving the relationship between individual ACEs and health outcomes underexplored (Merrick et al, 2017).…”