International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect (ISPCAN) 2022 Conference

1. Resilience and Adverse
Childhood Experiences
in Racialized or Gender and
Sexual Diverse Communities:
A Scoping Review
Tristan Bomberry, Emma Zhang, Shraddha Mishra, Maggie
Xu, Joseph Oluwasola, Victoria Meng, Dr. Christine Wekerle

2. 1. What is the relationship among (a) Adverse Childhood
Experiences (ACEs), (b) Resilience and (c) mental health
within diverse SOGIE populations?
SOGIE is an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity, and
gender expression.
Research Questions

3. Methods - Scoping Review
● EMBASE, Medline, Web of
Science, SCOPUS, PsycInfo,
CINAHL
● 49,490 records, 66 included
Arksey & O’Malley (2005)
● Recent, 13 qualitative studies,
geographically distributed
Diverse SOGIE Studies

4. Definitions & Measurements: ACEs

5. Definitions & Measurements: Resilience
“Positive
adaptation/
adjustment after
exposure to
adversity”

6. Prevalence of ACEs
● Reported in 53/66 studies (13 either qualitative or measuring a single ACE)
● Varied in reporting and value
● ACEs-Q:
○ Mean score: 1.04-4.1
○ Prevalence: most studies found 50% participants had 2+ ACEs
● CTQ:
○ Mean score: 35.64-65.5
○ Prevalence: 1 study found 39% of participants to have 1+ childhood
trauma type
Overall ACEs prevalence

7. Cut-Offs Used for ACEs Measurements
● Varying cut-offs to indicate levels of ACEs
● ACEs-Q: a score of 4 is most often used to categorize participants as the
“ACEs group”, or as having moderate ACEs
● CTQ: cut-offs vary study-to-study; most studies use cut-offs for subscales as
opposed to using cut-offs for the total score

8. Qualitative Studies: Sources of Resilience
Family is most often cited as
a source of resilience in
qualitative studies.

9. Mediation by Resilience in the ACEs-Mental Health Relationship
01 02 03
ACEs Resilience
● Two studies: resilience mediates ACEs-depression
● Four studies: resilience mediates some aspects of ACEs-PTSD
● One study: resilience does not mediate ACEs-substance use in
racialized communities
Mental Health Outcomes

10. Conclusions & Implications
● Higher ACEs prevalence among racialized SOGIE communities,
especially among Indigenous and bisexual people
ACEs correlation with demographic variables
● 11 studies: ACEs exposure negatively correlates with individual
resilience levels - consistent with prior literature on ACEs
● Two studies: No significant association
ACEs-resilience correlation

11. Conclusions & Implications
● Eight studies: Individual resilience negatively correlates with mental
health challenges, including when race is controlled for
Resilience-mental health correlation
● 14 studies: ACEs exposure correlates positively with mental health
challenges, including when race is controlled for
ACEs-mental health correlation

12. Take Home Points
1. Within racialized communities, resilience and mental health
outcomes are negatively correlated with ACEs
2. Resilience may mediate the ACEs-mental health relationship
3. These relationships are under-explored in gender and sexually
diverse communities, thus highlighting future areas of research

13. Further Research: Researchers
Use multi-method research to capture the nuances of particular
communities’ experiences
Study designs
Assess the effectiveness of utilizing resilience in interventions
for racialized/SOGIE persons who experienced ACEs
Intervention evaluations
Diversify study samples by including those with intersectional
identities
Study samples

14. Further research: Service Providers
Interventions may be resilience-oriented and embody cultural
connectedness
Culturally-safe resilience-oriented interventions
Use multiple instruments to examine childhood maltreatment
thoroughly and carefully
Screening
Continue learning about community-specific risks & strengths
and build trauma awareness among staff
Continued education

15. Further Research: Policymakers
Assess and implement programs targeted for specific
communities’ needs
Community engagement
Family support is crucial to resilience levels; prioritize programs
like childcare & communication education for parents
Family support
Implement culturally safe, gender and sexuality affirming
programming that involves schools, families, and communities
Inclusivity-oriented

16. THANK YOU!
Questions?
You can find us at:
zhany447@mcmaster.ca