Search

Objective: Although studies have examined the association between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and health and mental health outcomes, few studies have investigated the association between ACE and household food insecurity among children aged 0-5 years in the USA. The objective of this study is to investigate the association between ACE and household food insecurity among children aged 0-5 years., Design: The data used in this study came from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health. Data were analysed using multinomial logistic regression with household food insecurity as the outcome variable., Setting: United States., Participants: An analytic sample of 17 543 children aged 0-5 years (51·4% boys)., Results: Of the 17 543 respondents, 83·7% experienced no childhood adversity. About one in twenty (4·8%) children experienced moderate-to-severe food insecurity. Controlling for other factors, children with one adverse childhood experience had 1·43 times the risk of mild food insecurity (95 % CI 1·25, 1·63) and 2·33 times the risk of moderate-to-severe food insecurity (95 % CI 1·84, 2·95). The risk of mild food insecurity among children with two or more ACE was 1·5 times higher (95 % CI 1·24, 1·81) and that of moderate-to-severe food insecurity was 3·96 times higher (95 % CI 3·01, 5·20), when compared with children with no childhood adversity., Conclusion: Given the critical period of development during the first few years of life, preventing ACE and food insecurity and early intervention in cases of adversity exposure is crucial to mitigate their negative impact on child development.

Although some studies have examined factors associated with suicidal behaviors, few studies have examined the intersection of sexual orientation and race/ethnicity on suicidal behaviors among adolescents. The objective of this study is to examine the intersection of sexual orientation and race/ethnicity on suicidal ideation and suicide attempt. We hypothesized that controlling for the effects of known risk factors for suicidal behaviors, there will be an interaction effect between sexual orientation and race/ethnicity on suicidal behaviors. Data for this study came from the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System. A sample of 13,697 adolescents aged 14-18 years (51.8% female) was analyzed using binary logistic regression. Of the 13,697 adolescents, 17.7% reported suicidal ideation and 7.7% made at least one suicide attempt during the past 12 months. In the multivariate logistic regression models, non-White sexual minority adolescents are less likely to report suicidal ideation. However, Hispanic lesbian/gay adolescents had 1.71 times higher odds of making a suicide attempt. Odds of suicide attempt are 1.2 times higher for Black or African American bisexual adolescents and American Indian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander bisexual adolescents had 2.44 times higher odds of making a suicide attempt. Other significant predictors of suicidal behaviors include a history of sexual assault, a victim of bullying, depression, cigarette smoking, misuse of prescription pain medication, and illicit drug use. The findings of the present study extend past research on the intersection of sexual orientation and race/ethnicity on mental health problems among adolescents including suicidal behaviors., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or the publication of this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)