Facing Adverse Childhood Experiences

NCT ID: NCT05122988

Last Updated: 2025-12-24

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

2606 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-10-28

Study Completion Date

2024-05-01

Brief Summary

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Childhood experiences affect psychosocial well-being and mental health across the life course for better or worse. The aim of the present study is to investigate how adverse childhood experiences before the age of 18 impact psychological functioning in young adulthood, and whether social information processing and emotion regulation may mediate these associations.

Detailed Description

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The study plans to recruit 5000 young adults aged 18 to 21 representative of the German speaking Swiss population. Participant will be invited to the study by mail. Addresses stem from a Swiss sampling registry ("Stichprobenregister SRPH") and are provided by the Swiss Statistical Office. Access to this address lists is reserved to studies of national interest that are funded by the Swiss National Science foundation. Data collection will be conducted online with a REDCap survey following an accelerated cohort design. After the baseline measurement (w1), three follow ups are planned after 1 year (w2), 2 years (w3) and 3 years (w4), resulting in ages 18 to 24 being covered. The primary outcome will be psychosocial functioning across the study period.

1. Primary objective:

The primary objective of the study is to analyse the longitudinal associations between childhood experiences, emotion regulation, social information processing, social support and psychosocial functioning in young adults.
* Hypothese 1 is that adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are associated with a higher risk for lower psychosocial functioning in young adulthood and 2) that this association is mediated by deficits in emotion regulation, social information processing and lower social support.
* Hypothese 2 is that positive childhood experiences are associated with higher social support, adaptive emotion regulation and high well-being in young adulthood and that good relationships with parents and high social support are a protective factor in the presence of adversities.
* Hypothese 3 is that among young adults with ACE, higher social support, seeking professional help and more adaptive coping strategies are associated with a more adaptive psychosocial functioning.

Secondary objectives are
2. to examine the effect of childhood experiences on emotion regulation and social information processing.
3. to investigate the effects of emotion regulation and social information processing on the quality of friendships and social support.
4. to analyse the longitudinal associations of childhood experiences, emotion regulation, social information processing, social support and the single variables that constitute the composite score of psychosocial functioning, e.g. well-being, psychosocial distress, risk behaviours.
5. to investigate the associations between ACE, emotion regulation and social information processing and seeking professional support.
6. Further exploratory hypotheses investigate whether there are patterns of ACE which show differential associations with emotion regulation, social information processing, support and psychosocial functioning or single variables of psychosocial functioning.

Conditions

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Adverse Childhood Experiences

Keywords

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Adverse childhood experiences psychosocial functioning emotion regulation social information processing social support

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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age 18

n=1017

No interventions assigned to this group

age 19

n=676

No interventions assigned to this group

age 20

n=337

No interventions assigned to this group

age 21

n=500

No interventions assigned to this group

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Age 18 to 21, Living in German-speaking Switzerland, Internet Access

Exclusion Criteria

* Insufficient mastery of German
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

21 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Jeannette Brodbeck

Prof. Dr.

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Jeannette Brodbeck, PHD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland

Locations

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University of Applied Science Northwestern Switzerland

Olten, , Switzerland

Site Status

Countries

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Switzerland

References

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Reference Type DERIVED
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Other Identifiers

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SNF Nr. 100019_197731

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id