Factor Analysis of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study Sample

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), including exposure to abuse, neglect, or other significant household challenges within the first 18 years of life, have been associated with myriad negative health and wellbeing outcomes, particularly when assessed as a composite index of ACE types. Increasingly, ACEs have been operationalized as indicators of latent constructs of adversity; however, the dimensionality of latent ACE constructs remains unclear. Further, measurement invariance of latent ACE constructs has not yet been confirmed across youth of different economic backgrounds, which limits our ability to compare ACE effects across these distinct subgroups. Using a dataset optimal for ongoing ACE-related research, the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examined the factorial structure of seven ACEs (i.e., harsh physical discipline, emotional/verbal abuse, neglect, parent mental illness, parent problematic substance use, parent incarceration, and parent intimate partner violence) and examined measurement invariance of the identified factors for youth born into poverty compared to their peers not born into poverty. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed a two-factor solution, distinguishing experiences of child maltreatment from parent challenges. Measurement invariance (including configural, metric, and scalar) across our subgroups was confirmed. Our findings establish a foundation upon which ongoing ACE research and intervention development can be built. Congruent with increasing calls from the field, our findings support that ACEs should be studied as two distinct sub-dimensions of adversity, which may confer differential risk for negative outcomes, thereby potentially informing more tailored interventions.