The association between adverse childhood experiences and mental health wellbeing during the adulthood: the cross-sectional study of the 2020 United States Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS)

Background: To understand the frequency of retrospectively self-reported adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and evaluate whether early ACEs are independently associated with mental health wellbeing during adulthood. Methods: By using the 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) publicly available data, we employed chi-square test, Pearson correlation, and linear regression to study the correlation between the late effects of self-reported ACEs on mental health wellbeing during adulthood. Results: ACEs are not uncommon among the 116,378 participants. Among them, 30.9% of the subjects self-reported parents swearing at them, insulting them, or putting them down during childhood. Around one of four participants reported parents being divorced/separated, past physical abuse, or having lived with a problem drinker/alcoholic. And, 60% of subjects reported at least one ACE. Some of the ACEs such as "has anyone ever forced you to have sex" has a higher level of association with adulthood mental health wellbeing (increased by 167.6%). This was followed by "live with anyone mentally ill" (167.5%), "anyone makes you touch them sexually" (141.5%), "anyone ever touch you sexually" (131.5%), and "live with anyone using illegal drugs" (126.8%). Our linear regression analysis also indicated that the magnitude of the association is different based on individual ACEs. "Living with anyone mentally ill" has the most significant negative effect on poor mental health during the past 30 days (increased poor mental health day by 3.473 days with 95% CI: 3.330-3.617 days), followed by "anyone ever forces you to have sex" (3.463 days with 95% CI: 3.198-3.729 days), "anyone makes you touch them sexually" (2.933 days with 95% CI: 2.732-3.135 days), "anyone ever touches you sexually" (2.688 days with 95% CI: 2.512-2.864 days), and "live with anyone using illegal drugs" (2.439 days with 95% CI: 2.261-2.617 days). Our study also showed that the total combined ACE accounts have a good lineal relationship with adulthood poor self-reported mental health. Conclusions: Early childhood adverse experiences potentially have significant negative effects on human mental health wellbeing during their adulthood. The magnitude of the association is different based on individual ACEs, and dose-response exists between the total ACEs account and poor mental health wellbeing during adulthood.