The Importance of Positive Adult-Child Relationships

Increasing attention is being paid to childhood trauma and its long-term effects. Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur between the ages of 0-17 years. They can take many forms that include but are not limited to:

• physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
• emotional or physical neglect
• exposure to substance use or mental illness in the home, including having a family member attempt or die by suicide
• household instability due to domestic violence, parental separation, or family member incarceration

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About 64 percent of U.S. adults report having experienced at least one ACE before the age of 18, and nearly one in six reports experiencing four or more ACEs. ACEs are linked to a wide range of negative consequences including poor mental and health outcomes and life trajectories (e.g., educational achievement). However, a recent study published in JAMA Psychiatry found promising results about the positive effects of adult relationships on children regardless of their experiences with ACEs.

The researchers conducted a cohort study examining four waves of data: Waves one to three included children ages 5 to 17. By wave four children were ages 15 to 29. During childhood, researchers assessed participants for ACEs and sociocultural resilience factors—social relationships (maternal warmth and friendships) and sources of meaning (familism and family religiosity). During young adulthood, researchers assessed participants for mental health outcomes (anxiety, depression, substance use, and stress).

The researchers found that positive adult-child relationships (parental and nonparental) were associated with lower rates of depression and anxiety for participants in young adulthood regardless of their exposure to ACEs. An unexpected finding for researchers was that participants with higher levels of family religiosity had higher rates of perceived stress when they experienced high ACEs. As such, family religiosity was not demonstrated to be a protective factor as one might typically think but instead was related to increased stress.

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This study helps us understand the importance of positive relationships between children and their parents and non-parent adult caregivers, as both were shown to be associated with decreasing the risk for children later developing stress, depression, and anxiety regardless of their exposure to ACEs. The findings suggest that as an adult, you have a great capacity to affect the future of a child’s life by developing a warm, nurturing relationship with them. Through the power of this relationship, you can help prevent the development of mental health disorders and stress later in life even if the child has been exposed to early traumatic events.