Adverse and positive childhood experiences and associated adulthood criminal conviction

Abstract

Recent studies have highlighted how different childhood experiences are related to juvenile convictions, yet no study has examined different adverse-positive childhood experiences (ACE-PCE) dynamics to assess the mechanisms of childhood experiences leading to adulthood criminality. This study investigated the contribution of ACE and PCE exposures in experiencing adulthood criminal convictions using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data (N = 1,964) in four conceptual models based on Resiliency Theory’s frameworks. The associations of both adverse and positive childhood experiences on the likelihood of developing adulthood conviction experiences were analyzed. The results suggest that ACEs and PCEs present dose–response effects independently of one another where increasing exposure levels directly led to increased and decreased likelihood of developing adulthood conviction, respectively.