Stressful Events and Adolescent Psychopathology: A Person-Centred Approach to Expanding Adverse Childhood Experience Categories

Abstract

Stress from cumulative adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can pose a serious risk of experiencing anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders in adolescence. However, there is a paucity of research identifying specific profiles or combinations of exposure to other forms of stressful life events and their impact on adolescent psychopathology. This study attempted a conceptual expansion of the ACE checklist by examining these stressful events. The study used cross-sectional data from a modified version of the CASE Study survey where 864 adolescents (56% female, n = 480), aged from 11 – 18 years were recruited from four post-primary schools in the North-West region of NI. Latent class analysis of the 20-item stressful events checklist revealed 3 distinct risk classes: a low-risk class (53.5%), at-risk class (42.7%), and an immediate-risk class (3.8%). Results showed those at most risk of adolescent psychopathology had the highest probability of encountering interpersonal relationship issues, experiencing family dysfunction, and having close friends experiencing psychological difficulties. Findings indicate that the original ten ACE categories may be too narrow in focus and do not capture the wide range of childhood adversity. Expanding the ACE checklist to include other stressful events is discussed as these may also be antecedents to psychopathologic responses.

A Scoping Review on Adverse Childhood Experiences Studies Using Latent Class Analysis: Strengths and Challenges

“…Wang, Yu, et al, 2022;Xiao et al, 2023;Yuan et al, 2022;Zietz et al, 2020), the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (S. S. Chen, He, et al, 2022;M. Chen, Tian, et al, 2022;Lee et al, 2021;Li et al, 2022;Shin et al, 2018;Turner et al, 2021), Children of Alcoholic Screening Test (Shin et al, 2018), the Conflict Tactic Scale (Brown et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2021;Tynan et al, 2022), the Stressful Life Events Checklist (MacLochlainn et al, 2022), Positive Achievement Change Tool (Wolff et al, 2018), and Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (Grummitt et al, 2022).…”

“…Likewise, physical disability was also regarded as an ACE (G. F. Wang, Yuan, et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2020). Further, individuals' involvement with the criminal justice system was presented as the following ACEs: "Trouble with police" (MacLochlainn et al, 2022;Ross et al, 2022), "arrested," "convicted for a crime," and "probation" (Heidinger & Willson, 2022).…”

Adolescents’ Characteristics and Peer Relationships in Class: A Population Study

“…Being male or female has long been seen as an important variable when considering relationships with peers. Girls are considered to be more oriented toward other peers [ 65 ], they show higher-quality relationships than males [ 66 ], better peer communication [ 67 ] and their relationships are often more characterized by prosocial behaviour [ 68 , 69 ]. Other studies have, however, suggested that they are less socially connected with their classmates than boys [ 30 ].…”

“…Other studies have, however, suggested that they are less socially connected with their classmates than boys [ 30 ]. In addition, they claim to have more stressful events in their relationships with peers [ 29 , 65 , 68 ], and they appear to be more vulnerable when their peer connections end [ 70 ]. Male peer relationships seem to be characterized by a larger size of the group and a greater number of connections [ 6 ].…”

Familial and Bullying Victimisation: The Impact of Early Adversity Within the Home and Peer Settings on Late Adolescence and Adult Psychopathology

“…Consistent with existing research on the topic, these findings focused on adverse experiences related to the familial environment. Yet, a recent NI based study calls for the expansion of the ACE checklist to include stressful events in other settings (MacLochlainn et al, 2021 ).…”