Examining Adverse Childhood Experiences, Perceived Stress, and the Mediating Role of Mindfulness Among Social Work Students

Background/Purpose

Childhood adversity has a profound impact on individuals' long-term well-being. Research suggests that social work students experience higher rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than the general population, partly because those who have faced adversity are often motivated to enter the profession to support others with similar experiences. While this motivation fosters compassion and strengthens client rapport, it may also make social work students more vulnerable to stress. Mindfulness has been recognized as a potential strategy for stress reduction, yet its role in mitigating the effects of ACEs on stress remains unclear, particularly for social work students.

The purpose of this study is to 1) assess the prevalence of ACEs and stress among social work students; 2) examine the mediating role of mindfulness between ACEs and stress; 3) assess interest in a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) designed for social work students.

Methods

This study used a cross-sectional survey approach and collected responses from 82 bachelor’s and master’s social work students who are currently in practicum in a mid-Atlantic university. This survey included three validated measures: 1) Philadelphia ACEs Questionnaire, which expands the conventional household-level approach to ACEs by including five community-level adversities, including discrimination, neighborhood adversities, witnessing violence, being bullied and living in foster care; 2) Perceived Stress Scale, measuring the current level of stress; 3) Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale, measuring mindfulness. The survey also collected demographic information and assessed interest in MBI.

Descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses were used to examine the prevalence of ACEs and stress, and students’ general interest in MBI. Multilevel modeling was used to develop three separate mediation models to examine the role of mindfulness in mediating the number of total ACEs, household-level ACEs and community-level ACEs.

Results

The results showed that 34% of the students experienced four or more types of household-level ACEs, much higher than 17% in the general public and 25% among full-time child welfare professionals. Community-level factors such as neighborhood adversities were also highly prevalent (48%). Non-binary and Black students experienced more community-level ACEs. More than 25% of the students were highly stressed, 60% were moderately stressed. Mindfulness significantly mediated the relationship between the total number of ACEs and household-level ACEs on stress but not community-level ACEs. Over 90% of students expressed interest in MBI tailored for social work students, and 45% indicated currently using some forms of mindfulness practice.

Conclusion/Implication

The prevalence of ACEs and high levels of stress suggested that the well-being of social work students needs greater attention. Additionally, gender and racial disparities in ACEs, and especially community-level ACEs, highlighted the necessity of including community-level adversities to fully capture the experience of minoritized groups and shift away from a middle-class, white-centered paradigm in ACEs research. While the mediating role of mindfulness in household-level adversities provided foundation for developing MBI to alleviate stress among social work students, its lack of mediation effect for community-level ACEs suggested the need to also focus on systemic approaches.