Adverse Childhood Experiences in Children with Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Case-File Study in Dutch Residential Care

Jessica Vervoort-Schel,Peer Van Der Helm,Emmelie Mink,Ramón Lindauer,Xavier Moonen,Inge Wissink,Gabriëlle Mercera

doi:10.3390/ijerph15102136

Abstract

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are negative childhood events occurring in a child’s family or social environment, that may cause harm or distress. Children with intellectual disabilities (ID) and their families are underrepresented in international ACEs research, while current insights can also contribute to the improvement of their health and well-being. Deficiencies in intellectual and adaptive functioning and living circumstances can increase their vulnerability to adversities. In the present exploratory study 69 case-files of children referred to a Dutch national center for residential youth care for children with ID were analyzed to assess the prevalence and associations of ACEs. It was found that almost half (49.3%) of the children experienced 2 ACEs from the original ACEs framework or more (M (mean) = 2.1; SD (standard deviation) = 1.8) and that the number of ACEs in children was related to the presence of ACEs in parents. Both child and parental ACEs were also related to attachment- and trauma- and stressor-related disorders. Finally, living circumstances and multiple ACEs from the expanded ACEs framework, especially related to parental characteristics, were found to be related to ACEs in children with ID. This implicates the importance of a transgenerational approach when further investigating the impact of ACEs on mental and physical health in children with ID (intellectual disabilities).

Highlights

A global paradigm shift is currently taking place with regard to the understanding of health and disease throughout the human life span [1,2,3]
As the present study found that both child characteristics and living circumstances of the child were related to the number of original Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), it was assessed how much of the variance in the number were related to the number of original ACEs, it was assessed how much of the variance in the number of original ACEs was explained by these different characteristics
The results showed a relationship between the presence of ACEs or intellectual disabilities (ID) in parents and the presence of ACEs in children and correspond to scientific literature on ACEs and ID, describing that children born to mothers with ID or parents with ACEs are at high risk of adverse experiences and attachment problems in which dysfunctional rearing and impaired caregiving play a mediating role [68,75,80,89,90,91,92]

Summary

Introduction

A global paradigm shift is currently taking place with regard to the understanding of health and disease throughout the human life span [1,2,3]. Public Health 2018, 15, 2136; doi:10.3390/ijerph15102136 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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