Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys

The negative effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on individual mental health have been widely demonstrated, yet fewer studies have examined the impact of ACEs on depression and anxiety of Chinese adolescents and their sex differences. This cross-sectional study surveyed 12421 adolescents...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jiang, Weiwei, Ji, Mingxia, Chi, Xinli, Sun, Xiaojiao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9139613/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35626864
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9050689
_version_ 1784714900305608704
author Jiang, Weiwei
Ji, Mingxia
Chi, Xinli
Sun, Xiaojiao
author_facet Jiang, Weiwei
Ji, Mingxia
Chi, Xinli
Sun, Xiaojiao
author_sort Jiang, Weiwei
collection PubMed
description The negative effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on individual mental health have been widely demonstrated, yet fewer studies have examined the impact of ACEs on depression and anxiety of Chinese adolescents and their sex differences. This cross-sectional study surveyed 12421 adolescents aged 10–17 in Hechi City, Guangxi Province, to measure their levels of ACEs, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The results found that: (1) Girls were more likely to experience ACEs than boys (37.67% vs. 32.25%, χ(2) = 39.97, p < 0.001). (2) Emotion-related ACEs were more likely to occur among girls, while physical maltreatment, violence, and family dysfunction related ACEs were more likely to occur among boys. (3) Adolescents with ACEs were more likely to develop depression (OR = 4.40) and anxiety symptoms (OR = 4.60) than those without ACEs; adolescents who have encountered “peer isolation” and “emotional neglect” are most likely to develop depression (OR = 6.09/5.04) and anxiety symptoms (OR = 6.14/4.94). (4) The dose-response relationship between the level of ACE exposure and the risk of depression/anxiety symptoms was significant (p < 0.05), i.e., the risk increased as ACE level increased. (5) Girls were more likely to develop depression and anxiety symptoms than boys with the same ACE level. This study deepens the understanding of the prevalence of ACEs, the effect of ACEs on depression and anxiety symptoms, and their sex differences among Chinese adolescents in the underdeveloped regions of China. It provides more empirical support for future work on adolescent mental health protection.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9139613
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-91396132022-05-28 Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys Jiang, Weiwei Ji, Mingxia Chi, Xinli Sun, Xiaojiao Children (Basel) Article The negative effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on individual mental health have been widely demonstrated, yet fewer studies have examined the impact of ACEs on depression and anxiety of Chinese adolescents and their sex differences. This cross-sectional study surveyed 12421 adolescents aged 10–17 in Hechi City, Guangxi Province, to measure their levels of ACEs, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The results found that: (1) Girls were more likely to experience ACEs than boys (37.67% vs. 32.25%, χ(2) = 39.97, p < 0.001). (2) Emotion-related ACEs were more likely to occur among girls, while physical maltreatment, violence, and family dysfunction related ACEs were more likely to occur among boys. (3) Adolescents with ACEs were more likely to develop depression (OR = 4.40) and anxiety symptoms (OR = 4.60) than those without ACEs; adolescents who have encountered “peer isolation” and “emotional neglect” are most likely to develop depression (OR = 6.09/5.04) and anxiety symptoms (OR = 6.14/4.94). (4) The dose-response relationship between the level of ACE exposure and the risk of depression/anxiety symptoms was significant (p < 0.05), i.e., the risk increased as ACE level increased. (5) Girls were more likely to develop depression and anxiety symptoms than boys with the same ACE level. This study deepens the understanding of the prevalence of ACEs, the effect of ACEs on depression and anxiety symptoms, and their sex differences among Chinese adolescents in the underdeveloped regions of China. It provides more empirical support for future work on adolescent mental health protection. MDPI 2022-05-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9139613/ /pubmed/35626864 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9050689 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jiang, Weiwei
Ji, Mingxia
Chi, Xinli
Sun, Xiaojiao
Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys
title Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys
title_full Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys
title_fullStr Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys
title_full_unstemmed Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys
title_short Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Health in Chinese Adolescents: Differences among Girls and Boys
title_sort relationship between adverse childhood experiences and mental health in chinese adolescents: differences among girls and boys
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9139613/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35626864
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children9050689
work_keys_str_mv AT jiangweiwei relationshipbetweenadversechildhoodexperiencesandmentalhealthinchineseadolescentsdifferencesamonggirlsandboys
AT jimingxia relationshipbetweenadversechildhoodexperiencesandmentalhealthinchineseadolescentsdifferencesamonggirlsandboys
AT chixinli relationshipbetweenadversechildhoodexperiencesandmentalhealthinchineseadolescentsdifferencesamonggirlsandboys
AT sunxiaojiao relationshipbetweenadversechildhoodexperiencesandmentalhealthinchineseadolescentsdifferencesamonggirlsandboys