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The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Events, Resiliency and Health Among Children with Autism

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Abstract

Previous research has shown a negative relationship between adverse childhood events (ACEs) and health and resiliency among the general population, but has not examined these associations among children with autism. Purpose To determine the prevalence of ACEs among children with autism and how ACEs are associated with resiliency and health. Methods A quantitative analysis was conducted using data from the 2011–2012 National Survey of Children’s Health. Results Children with autism experience significantly more ACEs than their peers, which is negatively associated with their health. However, resiliency is not significantly associated with ACEs in this population. ACEs disproportionately affect children with autism, which is negatively associated with health, but not resiliency. Further investigation into why children with autism experience more ACEs but maintain resiliency is warranted.

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Notes

  1. In analyses not shown here, separate models were analyzed for children with special health care needs (not including autism) to ensure that the findings reported here were specific to autism rather than to disability in general. The results for children in this group mirrored that of children without special health care needs. Increasing ACEs in this population were associated with significantly decreased log odds of health and significantly greater log odds of mental health issues. Similarly, resiliency mediated the relationship between ACEs and health, anxiety, and depression. Finally, like their peers without special health care needs, as ACEs increased, resiliency decreased significantly for children with special health care needs (other than autism). These analyses are available upon request.

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Acknowledgments

The author would also like to acknowledge Dr. Stefanie Mollborn for her feedback on this project. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Grant No. DGE 1144083).

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  1. Department of Sociology, The University of Colorado Boulder, 327 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309-0327, USA

    Bethany Rigles

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Correspondence to Bethany Rigles.

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Rigles, B. The Relationship Between Adverse Childhood Events, Resiliency and Health Among Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 47, 187–202 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-016-2905-3

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