Adverse Childhood Experience and Chronic Health Conditions in Adulthood: Examining the Intersections of Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Adult Socioeconomic Status

Jalal Uddin , University of Alabama at Birmingham

Studies that highlight the longitudinal effect of childhood adversities often employ a unidimensional approach assuming that race/ethnicity and gender identities are separate and additive axes of social inequality. Drawing on an integrated framework of the life course stress process and intersectionality perspective this study examines the patterns in childhood adverse experiences (ACEs) by race/ethnicity and gender and how race/ethnicity, gender, and SES, in an intersecting way, moderate the effects of ACEs on chronic conditions in adulthood. This study uses data from four rounds of the Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System. Findings suggest that racial/ethnic minorities and women disproportionately expose to some ACEs compared to whites. The ACEs have a robust association with chronic conditions and the strength of these associations vary by the intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, and adult SES. The findings have significant implications for social protection of minority children and methodological approaches to health inequality studies.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session 9. Marriage, Family, Households, & Unions; Gender, Race, & Ethnicity