Effects of childhood adversity trajectories on mental health outcomes in late adolescence: The buffering role of parenting practices in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND

Childhood adversities (CAs) have been linked with unfavorable development; however, the chronic trajectories of multiple CAs and possible heterogeneous effects are understudied.

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the trajectories of multiple CAs and their associations with mental health outcomes in adolescence and investigated the buffering effect of parenting practices.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

We used population-representative data from the Taiwan Education Panel Survey (2005 and 2007, n = 10,416).

METHODS

This study was based on retrospectively self-reporting of six CAs, namely physical abuse, family economic hardship, parental problematic drinking, parental catastrophic health problems, parental divorce, and parental death, at three developmental periods: early childhood, middle childhood, and early adolescence. Group-based multitrajectory modeling and multiple regressions were used to identify distinct trajectories of multiple CAs and evaluate the association estimates.

RESULTS

A total of four trajectory groups were identified: increasing family economic hardship (12.3 %), chronic physical abuse (3.3 %), chronic parental problematic drinking (2.8 %), and low adversity (81.6 %). The chronic physical abuse group had the highest levels of depressive symptoms (β = 6.61, p < .001) and suicidal ideation (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 2.67, p < .001), whereas the chronic parental problematic drinking group had the highest level of substance abuse (AOR = 4.59, p < .001). Positive parental practices buffered the harmful effects of increasing family economic hardship in late adolescence, particularly for depressive symptoms and substance abuse.

CONCLUSIONS

Adverse mental health outcomes varied among groups with distinct multiple CA trajectories. The provision of social services to train or support positive parenting practices in families experiencing economic hardship is a potentially valuable resilience strategy.