Abstract

Nearly half of all children in the U.S. have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) and 23 percent have experienced at least two ACEs. Cumulative exposure to ACEs places children at increased risk for poor psychosocial functioning in childhood and cognitive ability may mediate this relationship. The study aims were to assess the predictive ability of cumulative exposure to ACEs on poor psychosocial functioning and to determine if verbal and non-verbal cognitive ability mediated this association. Parent-child dyads from a low-income pediatric clinic were assessed. Parents were given a parent report measure to assess the child’s psychosocial functioning and prospective and known exposure to ACEs. Children were given the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test, Second Edition (KBIT-II; Kaufman & Kaufman, 2004) to assess verbal and non-verbal cognitive ability. We hypothesized that ACEs would predict elevated scores on a parent-report measure of poor psychosocial functioning and that verbal and non-verbal cognitive ability would mediate the association between child ACE score and poor psychosocial functioning. We found that ACE exposure was predictive of poor psychosocial functioning overall, as well as internalizing and externalizing behavior problems specifically. We found no significant mediating effect of verbal or nonverbal cognitive ability on the relationship between ACE exposure and psychosocial functioning. Future research should examine the effect of targeted interventions to decrease internalizing and externalizing symptoms in early childhood, in order to improve psychosocial functioning later in adolescence and to reduce psychopathology in adulthood.

LLU Discipline

Psychology

Department

Psychology

School

School of Behavioral Health

First Advisor

Cameron L. Neece

Second Advisor

Kimberly R. Freeman

Third Advisor

Ariane Marie-Mitchell

Fourth Advisor

David A. Vermeersch

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Level

Ph.D.

Year Degree Awarded

2019

Date (Title Page)

9-2019

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Psychosocial Functioning; Adverse Childhood Experiences; Cognition

Type

Dissertation

Page Count

xi, 59 p.

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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