Resilience Intervention for Young Adults With Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are correlated with risk behaviors of smoking, disordered eating, and alcohol and substance abuse. Such behaviors can lead to significant public health problems of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obesity, liver disease, and hypertension, yet some individuals do not appear to suffer negative consequences but rather bounce back. OBJECTIVE: To pilot the feasibility and potential efficacy of the Empower Resilience Intervention to build capacity by increasing resilience and health behaviors and decreasing symptoms and negative health behaviors with young adults in an educational setting who have had ACEs. DESIGN: A two-group pre–post repeated measures design to compare symptoms, health behaviors, and resilience and written participant responses. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant cohort by time interaction for physical activity in the intervention group. There was no significant change in risk behaviors or resilience score by cohort. Young adults in the intervention group reported building strengths, reframing resilience, and creating support connections. CONCLUSIONS: An increase in health behavior is theoretically consistent with this strengths-based intervention. Evaluating this intervention with a larger sample is important. Interrupting the ACE to illness trajectory is complex. This short-term empower resilience intervention, however, holds promise as an opportunity to reconsider the negative effects of the trauma of the past and build on strengths to develop a preferred future.