A qualitative study exploring the factors that enable students with adverse childhood experiences to achieve successful educational outcomes.

Abstract

Background: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) describe the stressful and potentially traumatic events or situations that occur during childhood and/or adolescence, which threaten a child or young person’s sense of safety, security and trust. These experiences can result in detrimental impacts on the mental, physical, emotional and social health of young people, and can continue into adulthood. Individuals with ACEs often experience poor outcomes in life, including poor academic achievement, unemployment, violence, poor work performance, contact with the criminal justice system and low mental well-being and life satisfaction. Despite a vast body of existing literature on ACEs and its relationship with these various outcomes, there is a gap in research, and particularly qualitative research that explores the role of protective factors for ACEs which enable individuals to overcome barriers and challenges and go on to achieve successful life outcomes. This study therefore aimed to address this gap by identifying and exploring those protective factors that enable individuals who have been impacted by ACEs to enter higher education and achieve successful educational outcomes.

Methods: A qualitative online questionnaire was utilised asking open-ended questions which aimed to obtain the perspectives of individuals who had managed to overcome barriers and challenges associated with ACEs to enter higher education and achieve successful educational outcomes.

Results: Findings indicate that strong peer relationships, professional support, resilience, aspiration and recreational activities/hobbies act as significant protective factors for individuals in overcoming challenges and barriers associated with ACEs. Personal resilience was a key finding, attributed to the individual’s own personal strength and motivation, but clearly these factors overlap, and resilience would be facilitated by aspiration, peer relationships and other influences.

Conclusion: These protective factors help enable individuals with ACEs to enter higher education and achieve successful educational outcomes, with individuals expressing positive perspectives throughout their studies at university. They provide guidance and recommendations for interventions that would benefit a greater number of children who have adverse experiences. The perspectives of students with ACEs throughout university also appear to be generally positive, although it is thought that further emotional, academic and mental support from both health and social care and educational services is needed.