(PS4-D83) Sociodemographic Predictors of Interpersonal Traumas in Preadolescents: Findings from the ABCD Study

Trauma exposure is a well-established predictor of negative psychological, physical, and functional outcomes across ages and trauma types. Most research on trauma has been conducted in young children, adolescents, and adults, missing the critical developmental period of preadolescence. Knowing which characteristics are commonly associated with various traumas in preadolescence can inform prevention efforts and reduce negative outcomes. The current study seeks to identify sociodemographic predictors of traumatic events, with a focus on interpersonal events given the established unique risk conferred by interpersonal events on negative mental health outcomes.

Analyses were conducted with data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a population-representative sample of 9 – 10-year-olds in the United States (n = 11,875). Sociodemographic data collected included child sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and race. Categories for race were collapsed into Black, white, multiracial, and other to ensure sufficient power for analysis. Data on parental education and marital status, and family economic insecurity were also collected. Parents were asked about a list of traumas which their children may have experienced. These included: shot or stabbed by a family or non-family member, physical abuse by a family member, murder threat by a family or non-family member, sexual assault by a family or non-family member, sexual pressure by a peer, and witnessed domestic violence.

Lifetime prevalence of interpersonal traumas ranged from 0.34% (SE = 0.06) for shot or stabbed by a non-family member to 9.39% (SE = 0.32) for witnessing domestic violence. In multivariate analyses, higher economic insecurity significantly predicted greater odds of experiencing a traumatic event. Black children consistently had significantly lower odds of experiencing a traumatic event compared to their white peers (murder threat by a family and non-family member, sexual assault by a family non-family member, sexual pressure by a peer, and witnessing domestic violence). Multiracial children were the only racial or ethnic minorities to have significantly higher odds of a traumatic event (witnessing domestic violence) compared to their white peers. Sex was an inconsistent predictor across events, predicting both lower (murder threat by a non-family member) and higher (sexual assault by a non-family member) odds for females compared to their male peers.

Results highlight how trauma exposure varies across sociodemographic factors, but greater economic insecurity emerged as perhaps the most robust sociodemographic predictor of exposure to any interpersonal trauma. This finding is concerning in that children with greater likelihood of trauma exposure may be from families with the least financial means to prevent and address potential clinical sequelae. This finding also underscores the importance of public policy decisions in addressing poverty as a means of reducing children’s risk for trauma exposure and negative mental health outcomes.