Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1007/s40615-026-03070-3

Publication Title

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

Volume

Advance online publication

Pages

11 pp.

Abstract

Background

The sustained impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) on mental health outcomes in adulthood is well documented in the literature. ACE survivors may be especially vulnerable to poor mental health outcomes if they have limited or no social support. This study examined the moderating role of social support on the association of ACEs and mental health across different racial groups.

Methods

Data were obtained from the 2022 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n = 14,327). The nine ACE questions about traumatic events in childhood were used to create ACE scores. Chi-square tests were used for bivariate comparisons. Both stratified and unstratified adjusted multivariable logistic regression models were fitted to assess the association between ACEs and poor mental health using social support as a moderator.

Results

Across racial and ethnic groups, higher ACE scores were associated with greater odds of poor mental health after adjustment for covariates, and this association varied by social support. Among White and Hispanic adults without social support, reporting four or more ACEs was associated with significantly higher odds of poor mental health compared with reporting no ACEs (White: AOR = 3.45, 95% CI: 2.22 to 5.35; Hispanic: AOR = 2.64, 95% CI: 1.05 to 6.64). When social support was present, four or more ACEs remained significantly associated with poor mental health across all racial and ethnic groups, including White (AOR = 2.57, 95% CI: 2.20 to 3.00), Black (AOR = 2.81, 95% CI: 1.42 to 5.54), Hispanic (AOR = 3.70, 95% CI: 2.36 to 5.80), and other racial groups (AOR = 2.90, 95% CI: 1.54 to 5.42).

Conclusion

This study calls for developing culturally responsive, ACE-informed mental health promotion strategies that strengthen social capital and reduce disparities in psychological well-being.

Rights

© The Authors 2026

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

The data used in this study were obtained from the publicly available Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), conducted annually by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The BRFSS dataset is accessible to the public and can be accessed at https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/.

Original Publication Citation

Jesmin, S. S., & Chakraborty, A. (2026). The moderating role of social and emotional support in the association between adverse childhood experiences and adult mental health across racial groups: The need for investing in social capital. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-026-03070-3

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