Adult Attachment Outcomes and the Timing of Adverse Childhood Experiences

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) encompass a wide range of abuse, neglect, community violence, and household dysfunction occurring before the age of 18, and are related to multiple mental and behavioral health indicators in adulthood. ACEs research is frequently guided by a subtle, under-tested assumption: ACEs are assumed to be especially consequential because they happen during childhood. We sought to test this assumption with respect to adult attachment insecurity with a multinational adult sample (N = 7,135). We regressed attachment anxiety and avoidance on the age of first occurrence for 14 ACEs. We found that the age at which one is exposed to ACEs is generally unrelated to general and romantic adult attachment insecurity. However, the age of first occurrence is related to parental attachment, such that experiencing ACEs at an earlier age is associated with heightened parental insecurity. Implications for the ACEs and attachment literatures are discussed.