School of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile.
Center for Alcohol & Addiction Studies, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA; Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2025 Jan;249:106077. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106077. Epub 2024 Sep 26.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with externalizing behaviors. Whereas some ACEs affect individual children (i.e., child-specific; e.g., failing a grade), others affect the family unit (i.e., family-wide; e.g., parent losing a job); effects of ACEs on externalizing behavior may manifest differently across groupings of ACEs. Moreover, birth order may modify the association between child-specific and family-wide ACEs and externalizing behavior due to differences in the experience of being a younger versus older sibling. This study examined the externalizing behavior of siblings in relation to their experiences of child-specific and family-wide ACEs to test the hypothesis that younger siblings are at greater risk for developing externalizing symptoms following familial ACE exposure. Participants were 61 sibling pairs (younger sibling M = 11.37 years, 44.1% male; older sibling M = 13.1 years, 52.5% male) recruited from six schools in the northeastern United States. Parents rated each child's externalizing behaviors (e.g., bullying, meanness) and retrospectively reported on each child's experience of 34 ACEs; two raters categorized ACEs as child-specific (n = 10) or family-wide (n = 24). Multilevel modeling revealed that both child-specific and family-wide ACEs were associated with increased externalizing behaviors. Birth order moderated the effect of family-wide (but not child-specific) ACEs on externalizing behaviors, independent of sex and age. Externalizing behavior was higher for younger siblings as compared with older siblings, particularly when a high number of ACEs (6+) were reported. This research should prompt future exploration of mechanistic theories of the impact of family-wide and child-specific ACEs and the role of birth order.
不良的童年经历（ACEs）与外化行为有关。虽然有些 ACEs 会影响个别儿童（即儿童特异性；例如，成绩不佳），但其他 ACEs 会影响整个家庭单位（即家庭范围；例如，父母失业）；ACEs 对外化行为的影响可能因 ACEs 的分组方式而有所不同。此外，由于作为年幼或年长兄弟姐妹的经历不同，出生顺序可能会改变儿童特异性和家庭范围 ACEs 与外化行为之间的关联。本研究考察了兄弟姐妹的外化行为与其经历的儿童特异性和家庭范围 ACEs 之间的关系，以检验以下假设：在家庭 ACE 暴露后，年幼的兄弟姐妹更有可能出现外化症状。参与者是来自美国东北部六所学校的 61 对兄弟姐妹（年幼的兄弟姐妹 M=11.37 岁，44.1%为男性；年长的兄弟姐妹 M=13.1 岁，52.5%为男性）。父母对每个孩子的外化行为（例如，欺凌、刻薄）进行评分，并回顾性地报告每个孩子经历的 34 个 ACEs；两名评估者将 ACEs 归类为儿童特异性（n=10）或家庭范围（n=24）。多层次模型显示，儿童特异性和家庭范围 ACEs 都与增加的外化行为有关。出生顺序调节了家庭范围（但不是儿童特异性）ACEs 对外化行为的影响，与性别和年龄无关。与年长的兄弟姐妹相比，年幼的兄弟姐妹的外化行为更高，尤其是当报告的 ACEs 数量较多（6+）时。这项研究应该促使未来进一步探索家庭范围和儿童特异性 ACEs 的影响的机制理论以及出生顺序的作用。
