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The Effects of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Developing Diabetes Using Path Analysis

Introduction: Childhood trauma is an ongoing problem that has many debilitating consequences, including poor outcomes of both mental and physical health. Trauma can result in chronic stress which impairs the neuroendocrine and immune systems. This stress often leads to an abundance of cortisol in the body which can have detrimental effects on the body, specifically a higher risk of developing chronic illnesses. Due to the implications of chronic stress on the body, childhood trauma should be assessed when appropriate to assist in possibly preventing long-term health effects. The following path analysis was conducted to assess whether certain types of traumatic experiences in childhood could predict the development of diabetes. We hypothesized that (I) one or more ACE’s will predict the development of diabetes and (II) various types of ACE’s will yield different effect sizes in predicting the development of diabetes. Methods: Archival data was obtained from the 2017 National Survey of Child Health, which included parent/caregiver self-reports concerning 21,599 children, ages 0-18. Demographic (age, gender), clinical (diabetes diagnosis), and ACE variables were reported at one time point. A path analysis was used to examine this data and evaluate the predictive relationship of adverse childhood experiences on diabetes. Results: Results showed that the only significant direct effect on the presence of diabetes was experiencing low income (B = 0.305, p = .001). Cohen’s d for this relationship was 0.0465, which is a small effect size. Conclusion: These findings show the importance of assessing for adverse childhood experiences in primary healthcare settings so that brief interventions can be provided to help in the prevention of development of chronic illnesses. It is important to further evaluate potential moderators between this relationship.