Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Mental Health Functioning: The Moderating Effect of Mental Health Care

• Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have long-term, harmful physical and psychological effects1,5

• Various protective factors have been shown to buffer against the negative effects of ACEs3

• Additional research is needed to understand how mental health programming may mitigate against the harmful effects of ACEs

• Research question:

  • 1. How are ACEs related to current mental health functioning?

  • 2. Does receiving mental health programming in the past or currently have a moderating effect on exposure to ACEs and current mental health functioning?

• Hypotheses:

  • 1. ACEs will be associated with current mental health concerns, such that higher numbers of ACEs will predict worse mental health functioning.

  • 2. Past and current mental health services will moderate the relationship between ACEs and mental health functioning, such that receiving services will reduce the negative impact of ACEs

• N = 523 total participants

• Participants completed questions regarding their past and current use of mental health services

• Participants completed the Expanded ACEs Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) and measures of current mental health functioning:

a. Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS)

b. Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS)

• Analysis Plan:

a. Correlations were run to determine the   relationships between ACEs and mental health functioning

b. Univariate general linear models were run to test whether past or current mental health functioning moderates these relationships

c. If moderations were not significant, t-tests were run to assess differences in mental health functioning between those who received mental health services   and those who did not

• Consistent with prior research findings, ACEs are associated with poorer mental health functioning and are linked with negative outcomes5

• The community sample reported a higher number of ACEs & worse mental health functioning 

  • a. This may be explained by differences in socioeconomic background and ethnic/racial identities 

• Participants who reported being engaged in current mental health services reported worse mental health functioning

  • a. It is plausible that individuals experiencing greater mental health difficulties are more likely to seek services, and thus report worse functioning2

Higher numbers of adverse childhood experiences were associated with worse mental health functioning, with this finding especially prevalent in a community sample compared to a college sample. Mental health services did not buffer this effect across groups.

This research was funded by the Doctoral Undergraduate Opportunities for Scholarship (DUOS) in the amount of $900.00; IRB #02470r Approval; Psychology Departmental Honors Thesis Approval; Honors College Senior Thesis Approval.

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). About adverse childhood experiences. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/aces/about/index.html 

2. Edinger, A., Fischer-Waldschmidt, G., Parzer, P., Brunner, R., Resch, F., & Kaess, M. (2020). The impact of adverse childhood experiences on therapy outcome in adolescents engaging in nonsuicidal self-injury. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.505661 

3. Han, D., Dieujuste, N., Doom, J. R., & Narayan, A. J. (2023). A systematic review of positive childhood experiences and adult outcomes: Promotive and protective processes for resilience in the context of childhood adversity. Child Abuse & Neglect, 144, 106346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106346 

4. Srivastav, A., Richard, C., McRell, A. S., & Kaufman, M. (2022). Safe neighborhoods and supportive communities protect children from the health effects of adverse childhood experiences (aces). Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 15(4), 977–986.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-022-00466-1 

5. Webster, E. M. (2022). The impact of adverse childhood experiences on health and development in young children. Global Pediatric Health, 9, 2333794X221078708. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333794X221078708