TY - JOUR
T1 - Adverse childhood experiences, adult anxiety and social capital among women in rural Kenya
AU - Goodman, Michael L.
AU - Baker, Larissa
AU - Maigallo, Agnes Karambu
AU - Elliott, Aleisha
AU - Keiser, Philip
AU - Raimer-Goodman, Lauren
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful for the women who participate in the Kuja Pamoja kwa Jamii program, permitting us to understand their quest for empowerment and better lives. MG receives salary support from the National Institute of Health ( K01 MH119973-02 ). The program receives financial support from Baxter Family Trust and the Moody Methodist Permanent Endowment Fund .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - Hundreds of millions of people suffer anxiety disorders globally, demonstrating need for scalable and effective interventions. Adverse childhood experiences contribute to this mental health burden. The stress-buffering hypothesis, which posits social factors moderate prior adversity and subsequent mental health outcomes, provides one theoretical avenue to consider observations that group-based microfinance programs improve social capital. We investigate associations between adverse childhood experiences, generalized anxiety among adults and social capital associated with participation in a group-based microfinance program in rural Kenya. Adult participants (n = 400 women) responded to standardized measures of childhood adversity in June 2018, group-affiliated social capital and generalized anxiety in June 2019. Cumulative adverse childhood experiences predicted higher anxiety, which was statistically moderated by the presence of group-affiliated interpersonal trust. This study is the first to find social capital associated with participation in a group-based microfinance program statistically moderates expected associations between adverse childhood experiences and adult generalized anxiety. Future study should be conducted using a cluster-randomized control design to further assess the potential of this intervention method to ameliorate associations between past adversity and current mental health.
AB - Hundreds of millions of people suffer anxiety disorders globally, demonstrating need for scalable and effective interventions. Adverse childhood experiences contribute to this mental health burden. The stress-buffering hypothesis, which posits social factors moderate prior adversity and subsequent mental health outcomes, provides one theoretical avenue to consider observations that group-based microfinance programs improve social capital. We investigate associations between adverse childhood experiences, generalized anxiety among adults and social capital associated with participation in a group-based microfinance program in rural Kenya. Adult participants (n = 400 women) responded to standardized measures of childhood adversity in June 2018, group-affiliated social capital and generalized anxiety in June 2019. Cumulative adverse childhood experiences predicted higher anxiety, which was statistically moderated by the presence of group-affiliated interpersonal trust. This study is the first to find social capital associated with participation in a group-based microfinance program statistically moderates expected associations between adverse childhood experiences and adult generalized anxiety. Future study should be conducted using a cluster-randomized control design to further assess the potential of this intervention method to ameliorate associations between past adversity and current mental health.
KW - Adverse Childhood Experiences
KW - Buffering hypothesis
KW - Generalized anxiety
KW - Sub-Saharan Africa
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U2 - 10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102614
DO - 10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102614
M3 - Article
C2 - 35988441
AN - SCOPUS:85136128295
SN - 0887-6185
VL - 91
JO - Journal of Anxiety Disorders
JF - Journal of Anxiety Disorders
M1 - 102614
ER -