Impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental health: A retrospective study

Pages:183-186
Ria Saha (Department of Applied Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata)
Anjali Giressan and Sibnath Deb (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

The study examined the impact of adverse childhood experiences on mental health of a group of 400 undergraduate students (221 females and 189 males) especially on self-esteem, satisfaction with life, feeling of security and suicidal ideation. Findings revealed that 70.8% (283/400) of the students experienced some form of adverse childhood experiences (57.5% males and 81.4% females). Out of the total of 283 subjects who experienced some form of abuse, about 49.5% (198/400), 37.8% (151/400), and 27% (108/400) of them experienced verbal/ psychological, physical, and sexual abuse respectively during childhood while 25.5% (102/400) witnessed violence in the family. A good number of them had multiple adverse childhood experiences. So far as impact of abuse on mental health is concerned, a direct link was found between childhood adverse experience and low self-esteem (p<0.001), and feeling of security (p<0.001). A significant difference was found between abused male and female students with respect to their self-esteem (p< 0.01), feeling of security (p<0.05) and life satisfaction (p <0.001) scores. Abused students, especially females were found to be more likely to develop a negative image about themselves and their lives than that of non-abused students. Suicidal ideation was more prevalent among abused students, irrespective of gender as compared to non-abused ones (p<0.05).