Adverse Childhood Experiences Associated with Common Issues Entering Therapeutic Residential Care (TRC)

This study focused on youth in therapeutic residential care (TRC). It explored the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and common characteristics youth bring with them upon entering residential care. The characteristics explored included the type of referring agency, presence of an individualized education program (IEP), previous suicidal behaviors, history with Child Protective Services (CPS), and prior psychiatric hospitalization. Researchers assessed clinical data records of 139 youth from two therapeutic residential care centers in the Rocky Mountain Region of the US and analyzed associations between ACEs and the characteristics using nonparametric tests. Perhaps not surprisingly, ACEs results indicated that youth entering TRC reported much higher levels of abuse, neglect, home environment disruption, and overall ACEs scores than the national average. Important for treatment planning and intervention, patterns showed that emotional and physical neglect appear to be the discriminating ACEs variables for increased risk for suicidal behavior, CPS, and psychiatric hospitalizations. In addition, youth referred by mental health providers showed significantly higher ACEs than those referred by juvenile justice. Youth entering the TRCs without an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) showed significantly higher ACEs than those entering with an IEP.