Adverse childhood experiences: Pathways to internalising and externalising problems in young adulthood

Although adverse childhood experiences have been closely linked to a variety of adjustment difficulties in adulthood, less is known about which specific adverse experience or combinations of experiences are differentially predictive of internalising and externalising problems. This would undoubtedly enhance early adverse childhood experiences prevention and intervention programmes. Therefore, this research aims to explore the impact of adverse childhood experiences (abuse and neglect) on deviant behaviour, as well as depressive, anxious and stress symptoms in a community sample of Spanish young adults aged 18-20 years old (N = 270). All participants were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling methods as part of the International Study SOCIALDEVIANCE1820. All answered self-report questionnaires about sociodemographic issues, adverse childhood experiences as well as current deviant behaviour and current internalising symptoms. Regression and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis showed that experiencing either physical abuse or a combination of emotional abuse and emotional neglect may lead to externalising problems in men. Internalising problems, however, were linked to the cumulative effect of multiple adverse experiences and were more frequent in women. These pathways to both externalising and internalising problems suggest a differential impact of adverse experiences.