Abstract
This study tested relationships between different types of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and depressive symptoms, suicide intensions, suicide plans and examines the cumulative effects of adverse childhood experience on depressive, suicide intentions and suicide plans among senior high school students. We conducted a survey among five senior high schools in Nanchang city, which were selected through stratified random cluster sampling. Among the 884 respondents, 409 were male (46.27%), and 475 were female (53.73%); the age ranged from 14 to 18. During the past 12 months, 199 (22.51%) students presented to depressive symptoms, 125 (14.14%) students had suicide intensions, 55 (6.22%) students had suicide plans. As ACE scores increased, there was an increase in the odds of (1) depressive symptoms—one ACE (adjusted odds ratio, AOR = 2.096, p < 0.001), two ACEs (AOR = 3.155, p < 0.001) and three to five ACEs (AOR = 9.707, p < 0.001); suicide intensions-1 ACE (AOR = 1.831, p = 0.011), two ACEs (AOR = 2.632, p = 0.002) and three to five ACEs (AOR = 10.836, p < 0.001); and (2) suicide plans—one ACE (AOR = 2.599, p < 0.001), two ACEs (AOR = 4.748, p < 0.001) and three to five ACEs (AOR = 22.660, p < 0.001). We should increase the awareness of adolescents who have had adverse childhood experience, especially those with multiple ACEs to prevent depression and suicide among senior high school students.
Highlights
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can be defined as negative events experienced by an individual during his childhood, which will cause harm and threat to his psychological and physical health [1,2,3]
Our questionnaire was adapted from the youth risk behavior surveillance system (YRBSS), a public health project initiated by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1989 to monitor major health hazards that cause deaths, illnesses and various social problems in high school students
This study examined the relationship between each ACEs, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, family mental illness, family substance abuse and three outcome variables: depression, suicide intentions and suicide plans
Summary
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can be defined as negative events experienced by an individual during his childhood, which will cause harm and threat to his psychological and physical health [1,2,3]. Negative events including such events as parental substance misuse and mental disorder, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, familial death, parental separation, residential instability and witnessing violence in the home [4,5,6,7,8]. Public Health 2020, 17, 4718; doi:10.3390/ijerph17134718 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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