Abstract

Positive childhood experiences and associations with selected children's mental disorders: An analysis using the National Survey of Children's Health, 2018-2019

Kayla Anderson, PhD¹, Glory Okwori, DrPH^1,2, Elizabeth Swedo, MD¹, Helena Hutchins, MPH³, Rebecca Leeb, PhD³, Julie Donney, PhD⁴, Naehyung Lee, PhD⁵, Sarah Bacon, PhD⁶, Phyllis Holditch Niolon, PhD¹ (1)Division of Violence Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC, (2)Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, (3)Division of Human Development and Disability, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, CDC, (4)Office of Epidemiology and Research, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, DHHS, (5) Copial Business Strategists, (6)Office of Strategy and Innovation, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC

APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

Background: Although concern about children’s mental health is increasing, little is known about protective factors that could be targeted by prevention programs. We assessed individual, relative, and cumulative associations between a range of positive childhood experiences (PCEs) and selected mental disorders among children. Methods: Weighted data from the 2018-2019 National Survey of Children’s Health (n=36,420) were analyzed to obtain U.S. nationally representative prevalence estimates for 17 PCEs and current mental disorders (anxiety, depression, behavioral or conduct problems), overall and by sociodemographic factors, among children aged 6-17 years. Using robust Poisson regression, we calculated crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (aPRs) for the association between each PCE and mental disorder; to examine relative importance of individual PCEs, we calculated associations between each PCE and mental disorder, adjusting for socio-demographics, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and other PCEs. Results: For most individual PCEs, children with that experience were less likely to have mental disorders compared to children without the experience; these associations were not attenuated after adjusting for socio-demographics or presence of ACEs. Most individual PCEs were associated with lower prevalence of mental disorders even when adjusting for other PCEs, suggesting that many PCEs may have unique effects on mental health. Children with social and emotional competencies had the lowest prevalence of mental disorders, with associations strongest for behavioral or conduct disorders (aPR= 0.38; 95% confidence interval= 0.33-0.45). Conclusions: Findings suggest it remains important to target individual PCEs in public health intervention programs and take a comprehensive approach to PCEs promotion.