The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Mental Health of Young Adults with ACEs

Abstract

The impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on mental health is well-established. Additionally, the measures taken by the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, such as school and workplace closures, physical distancing, isolation, and quarantining, also seem to have a negative influence on mental health. However, the specific combined effects of ACEs and COVID-19-related stressors on mental health outcomes like depression, anxiety, hostility, and perceived stress were not clearly understood. Given that young adults may be more significantly affected by the government's responses to the pandemic than other adult age groups, they could be particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of COVID-19. Therefore, the two aims of this thesis were to determine if young adults with high COVID-19 stress had higher levels of mental health problems and whether those with higher exposure to ACEs were more susceptible to the negative consequences of COVID-19-related stressors on their mental health. To carry out this research, survey data were collected from the Niagara Longitudinal Heart Study (NLHS), which is a longitudinal study that had pre-COVID-19 data, as well as data from three phases of the COVID-19 pandemic collected using a series of follow-up NLHS-COVID-19 sub-study surveys. The study included 138 (171 included in longitudinal, mixed-model regression analysis) as the final sample of participants, with 41.5% males and 58.5% females. Among them, 21% had been exposed to four or more ACEs, while 17.4% had no exposure to ACEs. The findings revealed that the higher exposure to COVID-19-related stressors resulted in increased levels of hostility and anxiety among Canadian young adults. Notably, young adults with higher ACEs were particularly susceptible to the detrimental effects of these stressors on their mental health across different phases of the pandemic. This highlights the need for targeted intervention programs and mental health resources to support this vulnerable subgroup during times of crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic.