Background

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have long-term consequences. The ACEs model has been extensively used in high-income countries. However, its effectiveness has yet to be demonstrated in low and middle-income countries and marginalized social groups. In indigenous populations, research has found inconsistent results in the prevalence and the relationship between ACEs and mental health outcomes. Therefore, the objectives of this study were 1) to determine the ACEs frequency among indigenous and non-indigenous Mexican adolescents; 2) to test the association between ACE scores and symptoms of Mental Health Problems (SMHP) in both groups; and 3) to review the ACEs model adequacy for the indigenous adolescents.

Participants and settings

Data from an online survey in 20 of the 32 states of Mexico were analyzed. We selected an 87 adolescent sample from indigenous families and 174 non-indigenous matched for age, sex, and state of residence, with a mean age of 16 years; 60 % were women.

Methods

ACE-IQ questionnaire and Youth Self Report instrument (eight SMHP) were used to collect data. ACEs' frequency was analyzed for each group, and Pearson correlations were used to identify the relationship between ACEs and SMHP.

Results

There was no statistical significance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous adolescents in the ACEs report. ACE scores were associated with eight SMHP. Correlations between ACE score and SMHP were higher in non-indigenous adolescents.

Conclusions

ACEs were experienced similarly by both groups and were associated with mental health in all participants. Further research is needed to improve ACEs measurement in indigenous populations.

中文翻译：

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墨西哥土著和非土著青少年心理健康问题与不良童年经历 ACE 之间的关联

背景

不良童年经历（ACE）会产生长期后果。ACEs模型在高收入国家得到了广泛应用。然而，其有效性尚未在中低收入国家和边缘化社会群体中得到证实。在土著人群中，研究发现 ACE 的患病率以及 ACE 与心理健康结果之间的关系结果不一致。因此，本研究的目标是 1) 确定土著和非土著墨西哥青少年的 ACE 频率；2) 测试两组的 ACE 评分与心理健康问题 (SMHP) 症状之间的关联；3) 审查 ACE 模型对于土著青少年的充分性。

参与者和设置

对墨西哥 32 个州中 20 个州的在线调查数据进行了分析。我们从年龄、性别和居住地相匹配的87名原住民家庭和174名非原住民家庭中选取了青少年样本，平均年龄为16岁；60% 是女性。

方法

使用ACE-IQ问卷和青少年自我报告工具（八SMHP）收集数据。分析每组的 ACE 频率，并使用 Pearson 相关性来确定 ACE 与 SMHP 之间的关系。

结果

ACE 报告中土著青少年和非土著青少年之间没有统计学意义。ACE 评分与 8 个 SMHP 相关。非土著青少年的 ACE 评分与 SMHP 之间的相关性更高。

结论

两组的 ACE 经历相似，并且与所有参与者的心理健康相关。需要进一步研究来改善土著人群的 ACE 测量。