Adverse Childhood Experiences, Resilience, and Emotional Problems in Young Chinese Children

Yantong Zhu, Gengli Zhang and Tokie Anme ()
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Yantong Zhu: Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 3058577, Japan
Gengli Zhang: Faculty of Educational Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China
Tokie Anme: Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 3058577, Japan

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 4, 1-10

Abstract: Resilience plays an important role in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and children’s health. Young children are often neglected in ACEs research and suffer from the negative consequences of ACEs. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between ACEs and emotional problems in young Chinese children and the moderating and mediating effect of resilience on this relationship. This study included young children at the beginning of their kindergarten year ( n = 874, 42.80 ± 4.09 months) from Wuhu City, China, to examine the mediation and moderation effects of resilience on early-life ACEs and emotional problems. Our results show a positive direct effect of ACEs on emotional problems. Furthermore, a positive indirect effect of ACEs and emotional problems on resilience was found. A moderating effect of resilience was not observed in this study. Our findings (a) highlight the significance of paying more attention to early ACEs and revealing a better understanding of the effect of resilience on ACEs at an early age and (b) indicate that age-specific interventions should be provided to enhance young children’s resilience when exposed to adversity.

Keywords: adverse childhood experiences; young Chinese children; resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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