Adverse Childhood Experiences, Family Social Capital, and Externalizing Behavior Problems: An Analysis Across Multiple Ecological Levels

Abstract

Some research on childhood adversity is critiqued for emphasizing the experiences of white, middle/upper-middle-class people and not accounting for adversities faced by more diverse populations. Adversities are also often summed up in ways that are unhelpful for targeting interventions to reduce risk of poor outcomes. I examine adversities across ecological levels—child, parent, family, and neighborhood—to determine the risk of externalizing behavior problems (EBP) using a racially diverse sample from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect ( N = 1058). I consider whether family social capital can offset the effects of adversity across ecological levels. Longitudinal models indicate that adversities across multiple levels and those at the child, parent, and neighborhood levels increase risk of EBP throughout childhood. Cross-sectional models yield that early family social capital is associated with fewer EBP for children with multiple levels of adversity and at the child, parent, family, and neighborhood levels.