Impacts of Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences on Psychological and Behavioral Outcomes in a Sample of Chinese Juvenile Offenders

The present study examines the impacts of both adverse (ACEs) and positive (PCEs) childhood experiences on psychological and behavioral outcomes of an understudied sample, namely young offenders in China, which is culturally distinct from the West.

The survey data were collected from more than 700 male and female juvenile offenders confined in the only juvenile reformatory in a southern province of China. OLS linear regression analyses were conducted to test the effect of ACEs and PCEs on psychological and behavioral outcomes among these juvenile offenders. Psychological and behavioral outcomes were measured by the respondents’ depressive symptoms and misconduct during incarceration, respectively.

The results reveal that when examining the impact of both ACES and PCEs simultaneously in the statistical model, neither the composite/cumulative PCEs nor specific/individual PCEs showed any significant effect on juvenile offenders’ depressive symptoms and misconduct during confinement. Among the ACE variables, psychological and physical abuse experiences were significantly associated with depressive symptoms; sexual abuse experiences and household substance abuse were significantly associated with misconduct.

ACEs exerted a stronger effect on juvenile offenders’ psychological and behavioral outcomes during confinement than PCEs. ACEs that children experienced directly, namely psychological abuse, physical abuse, and sexual abuse, played a more significant role than inter-parental violence and problems of other family members. The findings together highlight the importance of providing programs or services to identify and treat juvenile offenders with prior child abuse experiences to reduce future psychological and behavioral problems.