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The impact of life and adverse childhood events on help-seeking behaviours - a cross-sectional survey of school-age adolescents in Jordan

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posted on 2025-03-13, 12:05 authored by Reham LasheenReham Lasheen, Sara Abu Khudair, Yousef Khader, Eizaburo Tanaka, Mohannad Al Nsour

Traumatic life and childhood events are associated with adverse health outcomes, particularly for adolescents, who are vulnerable to such events and exhibit distinct health behaviours and needs. Nevertheless, the influence of exposure to these events on their help-seeking behaviour remains largely unexplored, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean region. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of adverse events among adolescents in Jordan and examine how adverse events shape the help-seeking behaviours.

Methods: A national cross-sectional survey of 4407 school-age (12-18 years) adolescents living in Jordan was conducted between December 2022 and April 2023 using multi-state stratified cluster sampling. The study utilised self-report questionnaires as well as validated tools. These were adapted to ensure cultural relevance and sensitivity and translated to Arabic.

Results: The prevalence of at least one adverse event is around 16%, while that of four or more ACEs stands at around 41% in our population. The most commonly reported event was being infected or having a family member infected with COVID-19 at 60.3%. Specific individual characteristics and traumatic events appeared to shape their help-seeking behaviour, particularly family affluence and smoking status as well as exposure to COVID-19.

Conclusions: The study underscores the need to understand help-seeking patterns among school-age adolescents in light of exposure to traumatic events. Based on this study's findings, special attention should be paid to the impact certain events have on adolescents' mental health and their help-seeking behaviours. Positive help-seeking behaviours that resonate with adolescents' beliefs, emphasising contextual factors in mental health coping, should be promoted.

Funding

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers JP23K01722)

History

Data Availability Statement

Restrictions apply to the availability of these data. Data were obtained from The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) and will be made available by the authors upon reasonable request conditional on permission from EMPHNET.

Comments

The original article is available at https://www.mdpi.com/

Published Citation

Lasheen RA, Abu Khudair S, Khader Y, Tanaka E, Al Nsour M. The impact of life and adverse childhood events on help-seeking behaviours-a cross-sectional survey of school-age adolescents in Jordan. Pediatr Rep. 2025;17(1):22.

Publication Date

10 February 2025

PubMed ID

39997629

Department/Unit

  • Health Psychology
  • School of Population Health

Research Area

  • Population Health and Health Services

Publisher

MDPI

Version

  • Published Version (Version of Record)