Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences in a University Population: Associations with Use of Social Services

This paper is part of a series published by the Multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences research group based at Queen's University Belfast. First-year undergraduates took part in an online survey, self-reporting on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) and measures of social service contact. The ten-item ACE questionnaire measures abuse, neglect and household dysfunction (current sample alpha = 0.711). The study achieved a response rate of 18.6 per cent (N = 765; 552 (72.7 per cent) females and 212 (27.2 per cent) males, 21.8 per cent reporting having been educated at a 'Protestant' school, 42 per cent reporting having been educated at a 'Catholic' school and 20.4 per cent reporting previous school religious affiliation as 'other'). Despite obvious non-response bias, ACE scores for this student population are comparable with college-educated populations in the USA. Current respondents with previous social service contact are over twenty-three times more likely than peers to have experienced multiple adversities. Findings support the hypothesis that social service contact, alone, acts as a proxy indicator for the presence of multiple adverse childhood experiences, with no significant elevation in ACE scores for those going through court proceedings or subject to child protection registration. This study supports current concerns by policy makers to target those children experiencing multiple adversities.