Concurrent Childhood Experiences Impact Underage Substance Use

Abstract

Adverse and advantageous childhood experiences (ACEs and counter-ACEs) during adolescence are understudied. This study examined how childhood experiences affect youth tobacco/alcohol use. Participants included 489 U.S. adolescents (baseline 10–13 years; 51% female) from the first five waves of the Flourishing Families Project. Results of the cross-lagged model showed ACEs were predictive of early tobacco use only. Counter-ACEs in wave two and wave three predicted, respectively, decreased tobacco and decreased alcohol use in the following wave. Counter-ACEs were also correlated with reduced alcohol and tobacco use in later waves. These findings indicate the salience of counter-ACEs over ACEs in persistent and late adolescent substance use, though ACEs may be important to consider to prevent very early initiation of tobacco.

Childhood maltreatment: The role of concurrent advantageous experiences on adolescents' psychosocial adjustment

“…Second, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study conducted in Spain to address the buffering effect of positive family conditions. Our results allowed us to corroborate the previously documented co‐occurrence of maltreatment and positive family conditions (Broadbent et al, 2021 ; Crandall et al, 2021 ; Crandall et al, 2020 ). In fact, almost 30% of the participants who reported being exposed to childhood maltreatment in our sample also reported experiencing advantageous family conditions.…”

“…Overall, our results partially supported our fourth hypothesis, as advantageous family conditions contributed to better adolescent psychological and social adjustment even when accompanied by childhood maltreatment (Bethell et al, 2019;Broadbent et al, 2021;Daines et al, 2021). Membership in the adverse and advantageous…”

“…Overall, our results partially supported our fourth hypothesis, as advantageous family conditions contributed to better adolescent psychological and social adjustment even when accompanied by childhood maltreatment (Bethell et al, 2019 ; Broadbent et al, 2021 ; Daines et al, 2021 ). Membership in the adverse and advantageous family conditions class was related to a higher level of self‐esteem and a lower prevalence of TDV perpetration and victimization than the adolescents in the violent family context.…”