Neighborhood Poverty and Adverse Childhood Experiences over the First 15 Years of Life

This study examines the relationship between neighborhood-level poverty and the likelihood of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) across the first 15 years of a child’s life. Using data from six waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 4,898), we employ Poisson and logit regression to examine the extent to which neighborhood-level poverty is associated with increased likelihood of ACEs. We find that above and beyond the impact of individual-level economic hardship, neighborhoods with high levels of poverty (between 20 and 39.9% residents living under the federal poverty level) and concentrated poverty (greater than 40% of residents living under the federal poverty level) at the time of birth are associated with an increased number of ACEs reported by age 15. Further, living in a neighborhood with concentrated poverty at the time of birth is associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing 4 or more ACEs.