This study is a collaborative piece of research involving researchers at NCPHWR and was led by World Health Organization Collaboration Centre and funded by Public Health Wales.
Lead Author: Kathryn Ashton, World Health Organization Collaboration Centre on Investment for Health and Well-Being
The Challenge
Adverse childhood experiences (ACES) can have a negative impact on health and well-being throughout life. ACEs include growing up in a household where a child experiences violence or neglect or is exposed to substance misuse, mental illness, parental separation, and criminal behaviour leading to the imprisonment of family members.
Resilience is a characteristic of an individual that is developed over time which can help to reduce the effect of adversities and potentially transform toxic stress into tolerable stress. Having access to a trusted adult during childhood is critical; it can help children develop relationships within the family and wider community, and to improve social skills and build trust with others. A supportive relationship between a parent and their child has been suggested as the strongest factor in childhood resilience development and it plays a crucial role in resilience throughout a child’s life.
The Research
In 2017, a nationally representative household survey was conducted in Wales, achieving an overall sample size of 2,497 Welsh residents aged 18-69. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews at participants’ households by trained interviewers. The outcome measures were childhood resilience resources, access to an always-available trusted adult, and sources of personal adult support.
The Findings
- Access to an always-available trusted adult decreased with increasing number of ACEs from 86.6% of individuals with no ACEs, to 44.4% of those with four or more ACEs.
- For those experiencing four or more ACEs:
- individuals with no access to a trusted adult were significantly less likely to report childhood resilience resources, compared to those with access.
- For example, Individuals with access to a trusted adult were 5.6 times more likely to have had supportive friends and 5.7 times more likely to have been given opportunities to develop skills to succeed in life, compared to those with no access to a trusted adult.
- When looking at sources of personal adult support, resilience levels increased dramatically for those individuals who had either one parent only or two parents as sources of support, in comparison to those without parental support.
The Impact
This research helps to bridge a gap in the current evidence base on how having access to a trusted adult during childhood can help to build elements of childhood resilience, regardless of the ACE count.
The study suggests a strong connection between elements of childhood resilience, continuous access to trusted adults and different sources of personal adult support. Although the eradication of ACEs remains unlikely, actions to strengthen childhood access to trusted adults may partially alleviate immediate harms and protect future generations.
Read the full article here: Adult support during childhood: a retrospective study of trusted adult relationships, sources of personal adult support and their association with childhood resilience resources | BMC Psychology | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
