Adverse childhood experiences and perceived social connectedness among the Bangladeshi young adults

Abstract

A large number of adolescents from at-risk societies penetrate adulthood with stern adversity in their pasts. The present study was designed to evaluate whether experiencing psychological maltreatment, physical abuse, witnessing family violence, neglect and sexual abuse in childhood had any significant relation with Perceived Social Connectedness (PSC) among Bangladeshi young adults, and to determine the individual and combined effect of five forms of maltreatment on PSC. Data were collected from 200 university students of above 18 years following purposive sampling technique through adapted Bangla version of the “Comprehensive Child Maltreatment Scale for Adults” and “Inclusion of Community in Self” scale. Results reveal that all forms of childhood maltreatment- psychological maltreatment (r = -.526, p < .01), physical abuse (r = -.434, p < .01), witnessing family violence (r = -.322, p < .01), neglect (r = -.347, p < .01), and sexual abuse (r = -.656, p < .01) were significantly negatively correlated with PSC. Among the five independent variables of the study, only three variables- psychological maltreatment, physical and sexual abuse were predictors of PSC. Beta values entail that sexual abuse (β = .525, p < .001) was the strongest predictor, psychological maltreatment (β = .304, p < .001) was the second strongest predictor and physical abuse was the third one (β = .147, p < .01), and in combination they explained 57.7% of variance in PSC among young adults. Sexual abuse alone explained 43.1% of variance. The present study will fill the currently existing knowledge gap on childhood experiences and community connectedness.