Multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences and Children's Participation in out of School Time (OST) and Community

Background and Purpose: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are linked to wide range of poor mental, physical, behavioral, and social challenges. However, limited research has examined how multiple ACEs affect children’s participation in social, educational, and community activities. Thus, this study investigates the association between cumulative ACE exposure and children’s involvement in Out of School Time activities in the U.S.

Methods: Data were drawn from the 2022 National Survey of Children's Health (N=38,099) involving children aged 6–17. The study analyzed two primary outcomes: (1) participation in after-school extracurricular activities and (2) community activities, which were both categorized as binary ("yes" or "no"). Nine individual ACE categories includes: economic hardship, parental divorce/separation, parental incarceration, parental death, household mental illness or substance use, discrimination, witnessing domestic violence, and being a victim of or witnessing neighborhood violence (coded as “yes” or “no”). ACE exposure was categorized as: 0, 1, 2, or 3+ ACEs. Weighted complex logistic regression assessed the relationship between ACE exposure and the two outcome variables using SPSS v29.0 (significance level p<.05).

Results: Children who were exposed to economic hardship (aOR=0.69, CI=0.62–0.72), parental divorce/separation (aOR=0.83, CI=0.75–0.93), parental death (aOR=0.76, CI=0.62–0.93), living with someone with mental illness (aOR=0.77, CI=0.68–0.88), and discrimination (aOR=0.84, CI=0.74–0.95) were significantly associated with lower odds of participating in after-school extracurricular activities compared to children without ACEs. Cumulative ACE exposure showed a clear negative trend: children with 1 ACE (aOR=0.75, CI=0.68–0.82), 2 ACEs (aOR=0.70, CI=0.61–0.80), and 3 + ACEs (aOR=0.58, CI=0.51–0.66) had progressively lower odds of participating in after-school extracurricular activities compared to those without ACEs. On the other hand, economic hardship (aOR=0.83, CI=0.75–0.93) and parental divorce/separation (aOR=0.88, CI=0.80–0.97) were significantly associated with decreased odds of participating in community activities. Interestingly, children who were victims of or witnessed neighborhood violence were more likely to participate in community activities (aOR=0.88, CI=0.80–0.97). Cumulative ACE exposure, however, was not significantly associated with participating in community activities for children.

Conclusion: Children exposed to multiple ACEs are significantly less likely to participate in after-school extracurricular activities, though this pattern does not hold for community activities. In order to mitigate these negative effects of exposure to ACEs, schools and communities should expand trauma-informed programming, increase access to inclusive extracurricular opportunities, and develop partnerships with families to support at-risk youth. Prioritizing safe, supportive environments can promote resilience and sustained engagement in enrichment after-school extracurricular and community activities for vulnerable children at risk of ACEs in the U.S.