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Background Conducting culturally-relevant research with Indigenous populations requires a balance of approaches that benefit Indigenous communities, while perceiving and mitigating the potential risk of harm when engaging in research-related activities. Reducing the burden of research is especially useful for research with Indigenous populations as ongoing systemic marginalization and discrimination through historical colonial practices may result in a higher likelihood of experiencing harm from research activities. One way to ensure that stakeholder experiences with the research processes are not burdensome, and to understand how study implementation practices are perceived across research teams, supporting organizations, and individual participants is to build this into the study method. Objective The current study describes stakeholder experiences within a broader research study, entitled the First Nations ACE Study, which examined early childhood experiences and health outcomes for Indigenous people seeking treatment for substance use. Participants and setting Five treatment centre staff participated in ongoing consultations with the research team and described their experiences within a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) study. Method A document review of client satisfaction questionnaires of seventy-five participants provided quantitative feedback on experiences in addition to qualitative interviews with staff. Results Overall, experiences of both treatment centre staff and clients were generally positive. Additional results described the importance of continuous stakeholder participation, and ongoing study adaptations to remain aligned with CBPR approaches as pressure for expediency and convenience have the potential to encroach upon CBPR values. The study method was described to mitigate participant and staff burden, as well as risk of participant harm. Conclusions Directions for future research are discussed, including discussion of modifications that will be made to future iterations of the presented research study.

Background The relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and detrimental poor mental health outcomes has been increasingly explored within scientific literature since the original ACE study was published by Felitti et al. (1998). Given that deficits in executive functions (EF) are prominent in most forms of psychopathology across the lifespan, there is utility in considering how ACEs relate to EF outcomes. Objective To consolidate the research to date on the relationship between ACEs and EF outcomes among child samples. Methods A systematic review was conducted that included 16 scientific databases and 17 grey literatures. Results Across 36 studies, many examined EF related to forms of maltreatment (e.g. abuse, neglect, and exposure to intimate partner violence) and found a strong relationship between maltreatment and EF deficits among children. Similarly, family member mental illness (maternal depression in particular) was associated with poor EF outcomes. The relationship between other ACEs and EF outcomes have not been uniquely examined, including intimate partner violence and family member incarceration. Conclusions This review acts as a preliminary step towards broader understanding of outcomes related to early childhood experiences through the consideration of EFs. Through documentation of such relationships, it is possible to consider how prevention and treatment approaches may be improved.