engleski

Socioeconomic Contexts, Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adolescents’ Well-Being

Background: Life under economic hardship is burdened by prolonged psychological uncertainty, insecurity and inability to meet basic needs, representing a significant risk for well-being. At the same time, people suffering from economic hardship are more likely to be at the increased risk of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the Adverse Childhood Experiences and their relationship with the well-being of adolescents living in different socioeconomic contexts. Method: A sample of 1057 Croatian adolescents was divided into two subsamples based on participants’ assessment of family financial problems. The participants were high-school students (Mage = 16.29, SDage = 0.540), 215 in the economic hardship group and 222 in the non- economic hardship group. Instruments included measure of adolescents’ perception of family financial problems, ACE measure and The Good Childhood Index as a measure of adolescents’ life satisfaction. Results: All ACEs, except the death of a close family member, were more prevalent in the economic hardship group. Participants were further categorized into three groups based on the number of ACEs and two-way ANOVAs were performed, where satisfaction with 10 areas of life were dependent variables. There were significant main effects economic hardship and ACE on the adolescents’ well-being in all 10 life areas, while interaction between them was not significant. Conclusions: Valid ACE and economic hardship measures are important for assessing and understanding the adolescents’ well-being and developing the intervention programmes to reduce the risks for their mental health problems.

ACE, adolescents, economic hardship

Međunarodna konferencija; (2019) ESTSS2019 Rotterdam Poster Abstract Book, European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 10:sup. 1,