AbstractEarly childhood trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are increasingly recognised as major determinants of life-course health, yet their specific impact on adolescent risk-taking trajectories remains insufficiently understood. Landmark epidemiological work has demonstrated that cumulative childhood adversity is associated with higher rates of substance use, mental disorders, and premature mortality in adulthood [1-3]. Mechanistic and neurodevelopmental studies show that early adversity disrupts stress-response systems and fronto-limbic circuitry, leading to heightened emotional reactivity, impulsivity, and difficulties in self-regulation [2, 4-6]. At the same time, adolescence is a developmental period characterised by a normative increase in risk-taking, which dual-systems models attribute to an imbalance between a hyper-responsive reward system and a still-maturing cognitive control system [7, 8]. This maturational profile helps explain why adolescents are particularly prone to experimenting with substances, engaging in unsafe sexual practices, and participating in delinquent acts [7, 8]. Existing cross-sectional and retrospective studies link childhood maltreatment and multiple ACEs with self-harm, suicidal behavior, risky sexual practices, and substance use in adolescence [9-13, 19, 20]. Population-based surveys, including school-based studies in high-income and low- and middle-income countries, report graded, dose-response relationships between ACE scores and a range of health-risk behaviors [1, 12-15, 20]. However, such designs are limited by recall bias, temporal ambiguity, and an inability to model change in behavior over time [5]. Longitudinal studies have begun to explore how violence exposure and family disruption in childhood forecast externalising problems and substance use in adolescence [15, 17, 18], and mediational work suggests that emotion dysregulation and trauma-related symptoms may partially explain links between early trauma and non-suicidal self-injury [16]. Yet, few prospective studies have focused specifically on early childhood trauma (0-6 years) and tracked multi-domain risk-taking across adolescence, while simultaneously accounting for later adversities, family functioning, and baseline behavioral difficulties [4, 6, 17, 21].
The present longitudinal research, “Impact of Early Childhood Trauma on Adolescent Risk-Taking Behaviour: A Longitudinal study,” follows a cohort from early childhood into mid-adolescence to address these gaps. Using validated measures of trauma exposure and repeated assessments of substance use, risky sexual behavior, and delinquent activities, we examine whether early childhood trauma predicts both the level and growth of adolescent risk-taking above and beyond Sociodemographic adversity, family factors, and early behavioral problems. We hypothesise that higher early childhood trauma will be associated with steeper increases and higher overall trajectories of risk-taking, and that a graded, dose-response pattern will emerge with increasing trauma load. By clarifying the timing-specific effects of trauma on adolescent decision-making, this study aims to inform trauma-informed prevention and intervention strategies targeting high-risk youth before patterns of risk-taking become entrenched.
