Racial and Ethnic Differences in Adverse Childhood Experiences and Health Outcomes in Adulthood

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to many negative physical and mental health disorders in adulthood. Many individuals in the United States have ACEs, and rates are higher among people of color. Less is known about how to prevent these physical and mental health disorders and symptoms for individuals with ACEs. Five different factors may help in intervening on the negative effects of ACEs. These include: mental wellness, healthy relationships, physical activity, sleep and nutrition (Burke Harris, 2018). This study investigated how these factors influence health in adulthood for individuals with ACEs. The current researcher used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and looked at how the aforementioned factors worked for five different racial and ethnic groups. Results from this study showed that individuals with ACEs had worse scores related to mental wellness, healthy relationships, sleep, physical activity, and nutrition. Additionally, many of these factors were also related to physical and mental health. Some of these relationships differed among racial/ethnic groups. These results may indicate that these factors could be useful for intervening with individuals with ACEs to prevent negative health outcomes and that some factors may be more important or useful for some racial/ethnic groups.