Gender-specific profiles of adverse childhood experiences, past year mental and substance use disorders, and their associations among a national sample of adults in the United States

• Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Vol. 50; no. 8; pp. 1257 - 1266
• Main Authors: Cavanaugh, Courtenay E., Petras, Hanno, Martins, Silvia S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2015; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adult; Adults; Adverse childhood experiences; Alcohol; Analysis; Child; Child Abuse - statistics & numerical data; Child Abuse, Sexual - statistics & numerical data; Child of Impaired Parents - psychology; Child of Impaired Parents - statistics & numerical data; Comorbidity; Confidence Intervals; Depressive Disorder, Major - epidemiology; Drug use; Epidemiology; Female; Females; Gender differences; Humans; Latent class analysis; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Males; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - epidemiology; Middle Aged; Odds Ratio; Original Paper; Parenting; Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Regression Analysis; Sex Distribution; Sex Factors; Substance abuse; Substance use disorder; Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Surveys; United States - epidemiology; United States; United States > US; Baltimore Maryland; Gender; Mental disorders; National; Adverse childhood experiences; Latent class analysis
• ISSN: 0933-7954; 1433-9285
• DOI: 10.1007/s00127-015-1024-3

Purpose This study examined profiles of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and mental and substance use disorders (MSUDs), and associations between distinct profiles of ACEs and MSUDs. Methods Participants were adults ( N  = 34, 652) involved in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Latent class analysis was used to examine both profiles of ten ACEs and ten past year MSUDs. Dual latent class analysis regression was used to examine associations between profiles of ACEs and MSUDs. Given gender differences in ACEs and MSUDs, analyses were conducted separately for females and males. Results Four profiles of ACEs and three profiles of MSUDs were selected for both genders. The four profiles of ACEs were characterized by the following probabilities: high multiple ACEs, high parental substance abuse, high childhood physical abuse, and low ACEs. The three profiles of MSUDs were characterized by the following probabilities: high multiple MSUDs for females and low MSUDs except alcohol use disorders for males, moderate-to-high major depressive episode, and low MSUDs. When compared to the low ACEs and MSUDs profiles, members in the higher ACEs profiles had 3.71–89.75 times greater odds of also being members in the higher MSUDs profiles. However, more than one-third of members in the high multiple ACEs profiles were also in the low MSUDs profiles. Conclusions Study findings suggest four profiles of the ACEs widely studied as part of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study and risk and resilience for recent MSUDs among men and women nationally affected by ACEs.