ACE, Resilience, and Substance Use Disorder: Maternal and Baby Outcomes in the First Year of Life

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic or life-threatening events that occurred to an individual during the ages 0-17 and are measured with the ACE Score questionnaire. These experiences include being a victim of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and exposure to household dysfunction such as parental substance abuse or incarceration1. Multiple studies have shown that the number of ACEs an individual experiences correlates with his or her risk in developing chronic health issues such as diabetes, asthma, and hypertension later in life 2-4. In addition, ACEs correlate with a higher risk of engaging in risky behaviors such as substance use5. A recent survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) showed that 5.4% of pregnant mothers had used illicit drugs including marijuana, opioids, and cocaine in the past month6. Moreover, ACE scores of pregnant women have been linked to poor coping mechanisms such as illicit drug use during pregnancy7. These scores also impact prenatal, perinatal, and post-natal health8. For example, babies who were exposed to opioids in utero had significant associations with poorer health outcomes and delays in developmental stages9. Another study concluded that mothers suffering from substance use disorder engage in poor parenting practices such as "limited or absent parental monitoring and lower levels of parental involvement."10 Currently, many medical practices are using ACE scores as a general screening tool to help identify health risks and provide individualized care and family support11. Recent studies show that identifying positive childhood experiences is important when evaluating the impact of ACEs. Protective factors, such as resilience, can offset the negative health impacts of trauma12,13. Described as good outcomes in the face of a threat to wellbeing13, resilience can be quantified by using a questionnaire called the 7Cs tool14. The 7Cs tool, which examines an individual's competence, confidence, character, connection, contribution, coping and control, is a valid method to measure resilience. Currently, the 7Cs tool is internally validated for adolescents that have experienced trauma, and it has shown a correlation between better outcomes with a higher resilience score despite having higher ACE scores. Overall, there is limited information regarding ways to identify and determine the health impact of maternal resilience. More research is necessary to understand how ACEs and resilience affect postpartum outcomes in mothers with SUD and their child.

Inclusion criteria

• Women between 12 weeks 0 days of pregnancy and 1 month postpartum AND 18 years and older

Exclusion criteria

• Women younger than 18 and/ or non-English speaking patients who cannot give informed consent