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accessHealthNews.net
September 2024
Volume 10 | Issue No. 88
The events a person experiences
throughout childhood and adolescence,
both positive and negative, are directly
associated with health and well-being
outcomes experienced as an adult.
Rural-Urban Differences in Adverse and
Positive Childhood Experiences, a recent
webinar presented by Rural Health
Research Gateway, examined research
on the pervasiveness and effects of such
experiences among children living in rural
and urban areas.
The webinar was moderated by Per
Ostmo, program director at Rural Health
Research Gateway. Elizabeth Crouch,
Ph.D., deputy director of the Rural and
Minority Health Research Center at the
University of South Carolina, presented
her prior and updated research
comparing the likelihood of rural children
to experience adverse childhood
experiences (ACEs) and positive childhood
experiences (PCEs) compared to their
urban counterparts.
Though ACEs — experienced more
frequently among rural children — are
related to negative health outcomes,
there is hope: the research collected
and examined offers a blueprint for
potential solutions needed to improve PCE
outcomes, and health outcomes, for future
generations.
What are ACEs?
ACEs are traumatic events that occur
in a child's life. "They encompass many
different things, but generally the broad
categories include abuse, neglect, and
household dysfunction," Dr. Crouch said.
"These experiences matter because
we know that they're associated with
negative health."
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"We know that traumatic experiences, for example, may lead
to riskier behaviors in adulthood, to unintended pregnancy,
alcohol misuse – lots of things, but we also know that positive
experiences can reduce, ameliorate, or mitigate these
experiences."
- Elizabeth Crouch, Ph.D., deputy director of the Rural and Minority Health
Research Center at the University of South Carolina
