Breslin Florence J, Ratliff Erin L, Cohen Zsofia P, Croff Julie M, Kerr Kara L
Rural Health, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK, USA.
Hardesty Center for Clinical Research & Neuroscience, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK, USA.
BMC Med Res Methodol. 2025 Mar 18;25(1):77. doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02521-5.
Early life adversity (ELA) has substantial, lifelong impacts on mental and physical health and development. Data from the ABCD® Study will provide essential insights into these effects. Because the study lacks a unified adversity assessment, our objective was to use a critical, human-driven approach to identify variables that fit ELA domains measured in this study.
We clarify best practices in measurement of adversity in the ABCD Study through the creation of adversity scores based on the well-established Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaire and another inclusive of broader ELA. Variables previously used to measure adversity in the ABCD dataset were determined via literature review. We assessed each variable to identify its utility in measuring domains of adversity at baseline and follow-up time points and by individual completing the assessment (i.e., youth or caregiver). Variables were selected that align with decades of ELA measurement, and therefore, can be used by research teams as measures of ELA.
The literature review and critical analysis of items led to the development of three measures of ELA: an ACES-proxy score, a youth-reported ACEs-proxy score, and a broader ELA score (ELA). We provide code using R to calculate these scores and their constituent domains for use in future ABCD adversity-related research.
The ABCD Study is one of the largest longitudinal studies of youth development, with data available for secondary analysis. Our review of existing measures and development of a coding schema will allow examination of ELA using this dataset, informing our understanding of risk, resilience, and prevention.
早年生活逆境（ELA）对身心健康及发展有着重大的终身影响。青少年大脑认知发展（ABCD®）研究的数据将为这些影响提供重要见解。由于该研究缺乏统一的逆境评估，我们的目标是采用一种严谨的、人为驱动的方法来确定符合本研究中所测量的ELA领域的变量。
我们通过基于成熟的童年不良经历（ACEs）问卷及另一个包含更广泛ELA的问卷创建逆境分数，来阐明ABCD研究中逆境测量的最佳实践。通过文献综述确定先前用于测量ABCD数据集中逆境的变量。我们评估每个变量，以确定其在基线和随访时间点测量逆境领域的效用，以及由个人（即青少年或照顾者）完成评估时的效用。选择与数十年ELA测量相一致的变量，因此研究团队可将其用作ELA的测量指标。
文献综述和对项目的批判性分析导致开发了三种ELA测量方法：一个ACEs替代分数、一个青少年报告的ACEs替代分数和一个更广泛的ELA分数（ELA）。我们提供了使用R语言计算这些分数及其构成领域的代码，以供未来与ABCD逆境相关的研究使用。
ABCD研究是最大的青少年发展纵向研究之一，有可供二次分析的数据。我们对现有测量方法的综述和编码方案的开发将使我们能够使用该数据集来研究ELA，增进我们对风险、复原力和预防的理解。
