Forth Valley and West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative
Attendance Focus: August-October 2022
Research Summary
| Research reference (with link) |
| Adverse childhood experiences and sources of childhood resilience: a retrospective study of their combined relationships with child health and educational attendance
Bellis et al. BMC Public Health (2018) 18:792 https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5699-8 |
| Research methodology / Data Collection methods |
| This research study strove to ascertain if having a history of ACEs could be associated with poor childhood health, in turn affecting school attendance. It also sought to establish the extent to which such outcomes are mitigated by a range of community resilience resources and also which of these resources were the most effective. The researchers examined the broader measures of overall poor childhood health status and poor school attendance. They also tested whether seven community resilience assets (Community help
adult available, given opportunities, treated fairly, culturally engaged, supportive friends and having a role model) showed protective relationships with each child health condition, overall health status and school attendance. This was a comparative, retrospective study where those with reported ACES were measured for a level of benefit with respect to the amount of access they had to the seven mitigating factors. This research study wanted to determine if community factors that provide support, friendship and opportunities for development could build children’s resilience whilst safeguarding against some of the damaging impacts of ACEs. There were no interventions offered by this group. The method of study involved a national (Wales) cross-sectional retrospective survey of 2452 individuals using a stratified random probability sampling methodology. That being, the overall group studied were split into smaller groups, these groupings being decided by their common characteristics or attributes. Outcome measures were self-reported poor childhood health, specific conditions (asthma, allergies, headaches, digestive disorders) and school absenteeism. |
| Key relevant findings |
| The study found that prevalence of each common childhood condition, poor childhood health and school absenteeism increased in proportion to the number of ACEs reported. Resilience assets such as being treated fairly, having supportive childhood friends, being given opportunities to use your abilities, access to a trusted adult and having someone to look up to were independently linked to better outcomes. Children displaying more than four ACEs who experienced exposure to all the significant resilience assets (vs none) were able to reduce their inclination to poor childhood health from 59.8% to 21.3%. With specific regards to attendance the following was noted-
The conclusion of the study outlined that, better prevention of ACEs through the combined actions of public services may reduce levels of common childhood conditions, improve school attendance and help alleviate pressures on public services. Whilst the eradication of ACEs remains unlikely, actions to strengthen community resilience assets may partially offset their immediate harms. |
| Questions research raises |
| What implications does this research have on our endeavours to improve attendance?
How might an educational setting be a partner in ensuring effective exposure to the maximum amount of community resilience assets? How can we ensure that the researched wellbeing strategies are supported universally or indeed with a more targeted approach when childhood adversity is prevalent? |
| Follow up reading suggestions |
| Knowing your Children- Supporting Pupils with ACEs
ACEs- Educational Interventions
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