Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Sociology Department, College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 11;20(4):3202. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043202.
The purposes of this study are twofold. First, we explore the associations between cumulative ACEs at ages 5 and 7 and delinquency at age 14 in a national sample of youth in the United Kingdom (UK). Second, we explore the role of five theoretically relevant mediators in explaining this relationship.
Analyses were based on data from the UK Millennium Cohort Study-a prospective, longitudinal birth-cohort study of more than 18,000 individuals in the United Kingdom.
The results indicate that early ACEs are significantly associated with adolescent delinquency, with effects becoming significantly larger as ACEs accumulate. Findings also reveal that child property delinquency, substance use, low self-control, unstructured socializing, and parent-child attachment at age 11 all significantly mediate the relationship between early ACEs and delinquency in adolescence, with early delinquency and low self-control emerging as the most robust mediators.
Findings point to a need for early ACEs screening and a Trauma-Informed Health Care (TIC) approach in early delinquency prevention efforts. Early intervention efforts that bolster child self-control and curtail early-onset problem behaviors may also disrupt pathways from ACEs to adolescent delinquency.
本研究旨在探讨两个问题。首先，我们以英国全国青年样本为对象，探究儿童期 5 岁和 7 岁时累积的 ACE 与 14 岁时的犯罪行为之间的关联。其次，我们探究五种理论相关的中介因素在解释这种关系中的作用。
分析基于英国千禧年队列研究的数据，这是一项针对英国超过 18000 名个体的前瞻性、纵向出生队列研究。
结果表明，早期 ACE 与青少年犯罪显著相关，随着 ACE 的累积，其影响显著增大。研究结果还显示，11 岁时的儿童财产犯罪、物质使用、自我控制能力低、社交活动无组织以及亲子依恋均显著中介了早期 ACE 与青少年犯罪之间的关系，其中早期犯罪和自我控制能力低是最具稳健性的中介因素。
研究结果表明，需要对早期 ACE 进行筛查，并在早期犯罪预防工作中采用创伤知情的医疗保健方法。加强儿童自我控制能力和遏制早期问题行为的早期干预措施也可能会阻断 ACE 与青少年犯罪之间的关系。
