The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience in the Relationship of Adverse Childhood Experiences With Academic Achievement

Abstract

In this study, the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between negative childhood experiences and academic achievement was examined. The sample of the study consists of 405 participants who graduated from state universities in Turkey in the spring semester of 2022–2023. In the study, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale, the Brief Psychological Resilience Scale, and the general weighted grade point average in the university graduation transcripts of the participants were used as data collection tools. The relationships between variables were analyzed using Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis using Process Macro (Model 4). In the regression analysis, mediation was tested with the Bootstrap technique. According to the results, there were significant negative relationships between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement and psychological resilience, while there were significant positive relationships between psychological resilience and academic achievement. In addition, adverse childhood experiences are a predictor of academic achievement, and psychological resilience has a partial mediating role in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement. It is thought that the results obtained may contribute to the field within the scope of preventive and intervention guidance services to increase the academic achievement of university students with adverse childhood experiences.

Keywords

Adverse childhood experiences psychological resilience academic achievement university students

Introduction

All kinds of maltreatment, neglect, and abuse inflicted on people under the age of eighteen are referred to as adverse childhood experiences. Since the first years of life are important for brain development and neuroplasticity, neglect, abuse, divorce of parents, imprisonment of one of the parents, presence of family members using substances, and similar negative situations that occur during this period not only affect the developmental period in which it occurs but also cause many psychological problems experienced during adulthood (Felitti et al., 1998). Studies show that exposure to adverse childhood experiences is associated with various psychiatric disorders such as mood disorders, anxiety, depression, physical health problems, addictions, various dysfunctions, and academic failure (Hinojosa et al., 2019; Liu, 2017; Messman-Moore & Bhuptani, 2017; Reuben et al., 2016). Considering the effects of university students’ academic achievement on later life periods, it is important to examine the relationships between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement and the variables that may mediate this relationship (Mirlohi et al., 2024). At this point, one of the variables that may mediate the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement is resilience (Myat Zaw et al., 2022). Resilience research has focused on discovering the factors that will enable individuals to be successful despite the difficulties they have experienced in the past, and individuals with high levels of resilience are expected to successfully resolve the difficulties they face as a result of negative experiences and be more successful (Masten, 2001, 2018). For this purpose, the study aimed to examine the role of resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and the academic achievement of university students.

The Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Academic Achievement

Academic achievement is a multidimensional and complex structure and is closely related to students’ developmental processes (Mirlohi et al., 2024). In the literature, it is stated that cognitive abilities alone are not sufficient to explain academic achievement and that students’ academic performance is affected by many variables (Pinto-Escalona et al., 2022). Many factors, such as the environment of the home in which the student lives, the quality of parental caregiving, and the negativities in the relationship with the parents, can negatively affect the student’s academic achievement (Jimerson et al., 2000). Negative childhood experiences, one of these factors, have various damages in terms of physical and mental health as well as academic damage (Duncan, 2000).

It is very important to examine the factors affecting the academic achievement of university students. Because the success obtained from academic life is one of the most critical dimensions of an individual’s life and significantly affects other aspects of life (Mirlohi et al., 2024). It is reported that students with high academic achievement increase their self-esteem and avoid unwanted risky behaviors (Crouch et al., 2019). As a result of the studies, it has been reported that academic achievement in university is related to employment conditions after graduation, professional status, increase in socioeconomic level, job satisfaction, perceived well-being from life, and mental health quality (Andres & Grayson, 2003; Hinojosa et al., 2019; Strenze, 2007). In addition to the individual consequences of adverse childhood experiences on academic achievement, they also have social consequences. Students’ academic performances are considered important indicators in the evaluation of the education system (MacCann et al., 2020). If childhood traumas cause university students to fail or drop out of school, the efficiency and productive outputs of the education system are reduced (Pieterse, 2014). For this reason, in order to increase the academic achievement of university students, it is thought that it is important to carry out necessary preventive and intervention studies by examining variables such as negative childhood experiences that may decrease the achievement of students.

Adverse childhood experiences may affect academic achievement through many potential developmental mechanisms (Lurie et al., 2023). Studies have reported that students with adverse childhood experiences have problems attending school and experience academic problems (Souers & Hall, 2016). Compared to children without adverse childhood experiences, children with two or more adverse experiences are much more likely to repeat a grade and less likely to attend school (Bethell et al., 2014; Jimenez et al., 2016; Stempel et al., 2017). While having at least one adverse childhood trauma experience leads to a decrease in personal and academic adjustment to the university transition (Banyard & Cantor, 2004), each additional adverse childhood experience has been found to reduce the likelihood of on-time graduation (Otero, 2021). Although there are studies examining the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement in terms of primary and high school periods (Bethell et al., 2014; Qu et al., 2023; Souers & Hall, 2016), there are fewer studies examining the effect of adverse childhood experiences on the academic achievement of university students (Gresham & Karatekin, 2023; Hinojosa et al., 2019; Merians et al., 2019; Otero, 2021). Although most studies have been conducted in the United States, the proportion of university students reporting at least one adverse childhood experience varies between 48% and 75% (Forster et al., 2018; Karatekin, 2018; Khrapatina & Berman, 2017; Merians et al., 2019; Windle et al., 2018). In a small number of studies conducted with university populations outside the United States, the percentage of university students reporting adverse childhood experiences varies (Kaminer et al., 2022), and no study was found in Turkey.

It is important to examine how adverse childhood experiences affect academic achievement in order to plan preventive and intervention services that can be offered. Hinojosa et al. (2019) conducted a study to examine how adverse childhood experiences affect academic achievement and concluded that students with negative traumatic experiences had more difficulty in managing their time, mentioned that the teaching style in the classroom did not match their learning style, and had learning difficulties. On the other hand, the study reported that adverse childhood experiences were not directly related to academic achievement, but adverse childhood experiences negatively affected academic achievement due to increasing health barriers and familial barriers (Hinojosa et al., 2019). Although two studies on Chinese children and adolescents showed that psychological abuse and neglect were associated with academic outcomes (Bai et al., 2022; Li et al., 2022), the consequences of other types of adverse childhood experiences on academic achievement were not clear. In a study examining the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement of Ugandan university students, no relationship was observed between adverse childhood experiences and self-rated academic performance (Muwanguzi et al., 2023). Merians et al. (2019) concluded that those with high adverse childhood experience scores showed as much academic achievement as those with low adverse childhood experience scores. Based on these differences, it seems that it is still unclear how adverse childhood experiences affect academic achievement, and the mediating effect of potential moderating factors deserves further investigation. In addition, most of the research on adverse childhood experiences has been conducted with samples from the general adult population or with samples of children at risk. Considering the importance of university students’ academic achievement on an individual and societal basis, the fact that less research has been conducted on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement in a general sample of university students is an important gap in the literature (Day et al., 2011; Merians et al., 2019).

The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience

In the literature, it has been found that studies on childhood traumas generally focus on another type of negative outcome that occurs in connection with a traumatic situation (Forster et al., 2018; Hinojosa et al., 2019). On the other hand, there are fewer studies examining the variables that may play a protective role in the effect of adverse childhood experiences on academic achievement (Hinojosa et al., 2019; Myat Zaw et al., 2022). However, it is important to examine the variables that may mediate the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement in order to determine the appropriate mental health services that can be offered to university students (Merians et al., 2019).

Individuals differ in the time it takes to overcome the traumatic experiences they encounter throughout their lives and the effects of stressful situations. For some individuals, overcoming the impact of the stressful and negative life events they face is quite difficult and sometimes impossible, while for some individuals, it may be relatively less demanding. The power of individuals to recover themselves in such situations is referred to as psychological resilience in positive psychology (Doğan, 2015). Individuals with high psychological resilience are thought to have the ability to quickly reach a state of wellbeing in the face of illness, depressive mood, undesirable situations, and different transition situations, to recover themselves, and to leave their troubles behind professionally (Earvolino-Ramirez, 2007). Resilience research has focused on discovering what factors enable individuals to be successful despite the difficulties they have experienced in the past (Masten, 2018). In this respect, individuals with a high level of psychological resilience are expected to successfully resolve the difficulties they face as a result of negative experiences (Masten, 2001).

Psychological resilience is a multidimensional structure and individuals may function well in some areas and fail in others after difficulties (Infurna & Luthar, 2016). University students who report multiple adverse childhood experiences may be resilient in academics but may fail in other domains (e.g., mental health) (Reuben et al., 2016). On the other hand, it has been observed that the academic achievement of students with adverse childhood experiences can increase when intervened and supported with appropriate methods (Carlson, 2019). In this context, resilience can be utilized as a protective factor in coping with the effects of adverse childhood experiences (Keane & Evans, 2022).

Resilience, which is an important component in effectively overcoming adverse childhood experiences, can be considered as a trait, outcome, or process. Resilience as a process involves both internal and external factors that can steer a negative experience or series of stressful events toward the outcome of positive personal development (Gilgoff et al., 2020; Ungar & Theron, 2020). With the development of resilience, an increase in self-confidence and self-efficacy can contribute to coping with adverse childhood experiences (Morgart et al., 2021). Resilience contributes to students’ ability to effectively overcome setbacks and cope with stressors in the academic environment. Also, when measuring resilience, behavioral, emotional, and social competence areas and academic performance of the individual are accepted as the main areas that should be evaluated (Afifi & Macmillan, 2011). Myat Zaw et al. (2022) stated that future studies are needed to develop interventions to increase adolescent resilience and to test whether improvements in resilience reduce the negative impact on the mental/behavioral health of adolescents with adverse childhood experiences. In a study conducted among university students in Turkey, the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and resilience was examined, and a significant relationship was found between adverse childhood experiences and resilience (Pasha-Zaidi et al., 2020). All these suggest that resilience may be a protective factor in the effect of adverse childhood experiences on academic achievement.

The Present Study

Adverse childhood experiences are influenced by various cultural, social, societal, and economic factors (Alhowaymel et al., 2021). For example, the perception of whether a behavior is abusive and the willingness to disclose abuse experiences may differ across cultural contexts (Ho et al., 2019). On the other hand, a meta-analysis of studies examining adverse childhood experiences shows that most of the examples are based on Western populations, with the largest number of studies involving American participants (Hughes et al., 2017). This leads to a limited geographical representation of research on adverse childhood experiences among university students and the identification of patterns of adverse childhood experiences that may be specific to particular higher education settings. Whereas, investigating the effects of adverse childhood experiences and coping resources among university students living in different sociocultural contexts will enable campus mental health support specialists to understand and meet the specific needs of the student population (Kaminer et al., 2022).

Research on resilience factors among young adults exposed to adverse childhood experiences is also a major concern (Pasha-Zaidi et al., 2020). Similar to adverse childhood experiences, both risk and protective factors for resilience vary according to sociocultural environments (Ungar et al., 2007). Therefore, examining the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement in different cultures is important in terms of making cultural interventions to increase resilience. For this purpose, the study aims to examine the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement of university students in Turkey. It is thought that the study will contribute to the field since it has not been conducted before in the Turkish sample and addresses resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences with academic achievement, which is still an area of uncertainty. In this context, the hypotheses of the study are as follows:

H1: There is a significant relationship between adverse childhood experiences, academic achievement, and psychological resilience.

H2: Psychological resilience has a mediating role in the effect of adverse childhood experiences on academic achievement.

Method

Procedure

This study was designed according to the relational survey model, which is within the scope of general survey research. In these studies, it is aimed to explain the relationships between the variables examined and to make predictions about the results (Fraenkel et al., 2012). In this context, the relationships between adverse childhood experiences, academic achievement, and psychological resilience were examined. In addition, within the scope of predictive relationship research, the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement was also examined in the study.

Participants

The sample of the study consisted of 405 participants aged between 23 and 36 ( $\bar{x}$ = 26.20), who graduated from state universities in Turkey in the spring semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. In order to obtain general information about academic achievement throughout university life, data were collected in November after graduation from people who received their graduation diplomas in the spring semester (June, July, August) of 2023. The sample participants graduated from various faculties (law, engineering, health sciences, educational sciences, science and literature). All of the participants were undergraduate graduates at the time of data collection. Individuals who continue postgraduate education after graduation were not included in the study since many criteria should be taken into consideration in the evaluation of postgraduate academic achievement. In addition, since the research questions have the potential to evoke traumatic memories of the participants’ childhood experiences, care was taken to ensure that the sample consisted of non-clinical participants against potential psychological risks. People who declared that they had a psychiatric diagnosis and received psychological support during the period when the research data were collected were excluded from the study. After their declaration, the questionnaires were not opened as the next stage in Google Forms.

Data were collected from recent graduates of six state universities in four major cities representing different geographical regions of Turkey. Considering the ease of accessing the data, a convenient sampling method was preferred. Of the 405 participants, 220 (54.3%) were female and 185 (45.7%) were male. Of the participants in the study group, 241 (59.5%) stated that they started working after graduation, while 164 (40.5%) stated that they had not yet started working in any job after graduation. Of the participants, 246 (60.7%) defined their socioeconomic level as low, 100 (24.7%) defined their socioeconomic level as medium, and 59 (14.6%) defined their socioeconomic level as high. Therefore, many variables, such as their income, family income, and educational opportunities, can affect participants’ perceptions of socioeconomic level (Oakes & Andrade, 2014). It was also observed that 167 (41.2%) of the participants had a GPA between 1.00 and 2.00, 173 (42.7%) had a GPA between 2.00 and 3.00, and 65 (16%) had a GPA between 3.00 and 4.00.

Measures

The Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale, Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences study, is a longitudinal epidemiological study focusing on the physical and psychological consequences of child maltreatment organized by the Kaiser Permanente health group in California (Dube et al., 2003). The inventory resulting from this study was adapted to Turkish culture by Gündüz et al. (2018). The scale consists of 10 items questioning the traumas experienced during childhood. In the adaptation study, Cronbach’s alpha value calculated to determine the internal consistency was 0.74. The suitability of the scale for use in this study was examined by reliability analysis, and exploratory factor analysis was applied. In this context, it was seen that the KMO value was .85, and Barlett Sphericity test was p < .000, and the data set was accepted as suitable for factor analysis. The unidimensional structure of the scale (57.41% of the total variance was explained) was also confirmed in this data set. The fact that the factor loadings of the scale vary between .54 and .87 shows that the items of the scale are compatible with the structure in which they are located. In addition, Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as .85 in this study. Based on all these, it can be said that it is appropriate to use the scale within the scope of this study.

The Brief Psychological Resilience Scale was developed by Smith et al. (2008) to measure the psychological resilience of individuals and adapted to Turkish culture by Doğan (2015). The scale is a self-report tool consisting of 6 items. The increase in the total score obtained from the scale indicates an increase in psychological resilience. In the adaptation study, Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient was calculated as .83. The suitability of the scale for use in this study was examined by reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis was applied. In this context, it was seen that the KMO value was .84 and the Barlett Sphericity test was p < .000, and it was accepted that the data set was suitable for factor analysis. The unidimensional structure of the scale (51.40% of the total variance was explained) was also confirmed in this data set. The factor loadings of the Brief Psychological Resilience Scale ranged between .56 and .77, indicating that the items of the scale are compatible with the structure of the scale. In addition, Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated as .80 in this study. Based on all these, it can be said that it is appropriate to use the scale within the scope of this study.

The participants were also asked to fill in the Personal Information Form. In the form, there are sections where they will write their age, gender, socioeconomic level (Consisting of three categories: Low-medium-high), and graduation grades. The academic achievements of the participants were examined on the basis of the General Weighted Grade Point Average written on the transcript, they graduated from the undergraduate program. Those with GPAs between 1.00 and 2.00 (2.00 low level) are considered as low level successful, those between 2.01 and 3.00 (3.00 medium level) are considered as medium level successful, and those between 3.01 and 4.00 are considered as high level successful.

Process

The data were collected online by preparing a Google Forms. The participants, who were recent graduates from universities in different cities in Turkey, were reached through experts working in graduate offices. Participants were contacted via e-mail and they were asked to fill out a consent form indicating that they volunteered to participate in the study before they started to fill out the online form. Participants who did not fill out this form were not directed to the survey questions and were excluded from the study. After the participants confirmed that they wanted to participate in the study, they were directed to the consent form signed by the researcher, which explained how the security of the data obtained from the participants would be ensured in the second stage. Participants who saw and approved the ethical commitments of the researcher (in this form, the purpose of the study, the ethical principles to be followed, and how the collected data will be destroyed were explained in detail) were directed to online surveys. In addition, the possibility that the research questions could affect the participants’ psychological health by triggering their negative childhood experiences was taken into account, and the researcher’s contact information was included at the end of the surveys. It has been reported that participants who are negatively affected and need psychological support will be directed to appropriate mental health centers and receive free psychological support.

Analysis

In order to examine the suitability of the data for parametric tests, kurtosis, skewness, Z score, and Mahalanobis outlier analyses were performed, and 22 unsuitable data were eliminated. It was seen that all of the standardized scores of the remaining data were between −3 and +3, and it was concluded that there were no one-way outliers in the data set (Schumacker & Tomek, 2013). Before proceeding with the basic analysis, missing data analysis was performed, and the EM algorithm was used to solve the missing data problem. Multivariate extreme values in the data set were examined by calculating the Mahalanobis distance (Çokluk et al., 2011). Skewness and kurtosis values were analyzed again and presented in Table 1, and multiple normality was also checked and it was assumed that the data were normally distributed. In the study, in addition to descriptive analysis in which values such as mean and standard deviation were calculated, correlation analysis was used to determine the relationships between variables. The presence of multicollinearity, one of the prerequisites for regression analysis, was examined through variance inflation factors (VIF) and tolerance values (TV) of the variables in the model. It was observed that the VIF values of the variables in this model were 1.38 and TV values were .73, and there was no multicollinearity problem (Kline, 2016; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2019). In the study, the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between negative childhood experiences and academic achievement was analyzed using the Regression-Based Bootstrapping Technique. In the analyses, 5000 bootstrap samples were used, and the predictions were evaluated within the 95% confidence interval, which was free from bias and reflects the corrected results. The model used for the mediation role was designed according to Model 4, suggested by Hayes (2017), in the presence of one independent, one dependent, and one mediator variable. The effect’s significance was tested by considering that the 95% confidence interval values do not include zero with the bootstrap technique (MacKinnon et al., 2004). Analyzes were carried out with SPSS 26 PROCESS programs.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics of Variables and Relationships Between Variables.

	n	Min.	Max.	$\bar{x}$	Ss	Skewness	Kurtosis	(1)	(2)	(3)
(1) Adverse childhood experiences	405	4	9	6.19	1.01	.20	.16	1	−.39**	−.51**
(2) Academic achievement	405	1	3	1.75	.72	.41	−.97	−.39**	1	.52**
(3) Psychological resilience	405	6	26	16.24	3.70	−.21	.27	−.51**	.52**	1

**p < .01.

Results

Pearson Analysis

Within the scope of the first hypothesis of the research, the results of the correlation analysis examining the skewness and kurtosis values of the negative childhood experiences, academic achievement, and psychological resilience scale scores and the relationships between the variables are presented in Table 1:

Table 1, it can be said that the data has a normal distribution (George & Mallery, 2019). As a result of the analysis, it is seen that the negative childhood experiences scores ( $\bar{x}$ = 6.19) of the data constituting the study group are above the average. Table 1 for the correlation analysis results; it can be said that as negative childhood experiences increase, academic achievement and psychological resilience decrease, and as psychological resilience increases, academic achievement increases. After it was seen that the relationships between the variables were significant, mediation analysis was started.

Mediation Analysis Results

The model created within the scope of the second hypothesis of the research, regarding the mediating role of psychological resilience in the effect of negative childhood experiences on academic achievement, is shown in Figure 1:

Figure 1.

Adverse Childhood Experiences Predict Academic Achievement through Psychological Resilience [R² = .30; F_(2-402) = 77.766; p < .001].

When Figure 1 is examined, it is seen that negative childhood experiences directly predict psychological resilience in a negative direction (B = −.51; p < .001; %95 CI [-.60; −.41]). Likewise, psychological resilience appears to directly predict academic achievement positively (B = .44; p < .001; %95 CI [.35; .52]). In addition, it is seen that negative childhood experiences directly predict academic achievement negatively, and the total effect is significant (B = −.39; p < .001; %95 CI [-.26; −.07]). When the mediator variable, psychological resilience, was included in the model, it was seen that this effect was −.17, and the value was still significant. There is a partial mediation effect since the coefficient resulting from the inclusion of the mediator variables in the model is still significant. The bootstrapping coefficient and 95% confidence intervals (CI) regarding whether the indirect effects of partial mediation determined in the model are significant are presented in Table 2:

Table 2.

Bootstrap Results Regarding the Mediation of Psychological Resilience in the Effect of Adverse Childhood Experiences on Academic Achievement.

			%95 CI
Indirect effects	Coefficient	S.e.	LLCI	ULCI	R ²	F _(2-402)
ACE $\to$ R $\to$ AA	−.15	.03	−.29	−.17	.30	77.766
Direct effects	Coefficient	S.e.	t value
ACE $\to$ R	−.51	.16	−11.84**
R $\to$ AA	.44	.01	9.05**

Note. **p < .001; ACE; Adverse Childhood Experiences; R; Psychological Resilience; AA: Academic Achievement; Se: Standard error; CI: Confidence Interval.

Table 2, it is understood that the partial mediation model is significant [F_{(2, 402)} = 77.766, p < .001]. Adverse childhood experiences and psychological resilience explained 30% of the variance in academic achievement. It was concluded that the mediating role of psychological resilience in the effect of adverse childhood experiences on academic achievement is significant, and these confidence intervals do not include any zero (0) points. (Bootstrap Coefficient = −.15, %95 CI [−.29; −.17]).

Discussion

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement of university students in Turkey. As a result of the analyses, the research hypotheses were confirmed. According to the results obtained, it can be said that as negative childhood experiences increase, academic achievement and psychological resilience decrease, and as psychological resilience increases, academic achievement increases. These results are consistent with studies showing that negative childhood experiences have a negative impact on academic achievement (Carlson, 2019; Qu et al., 2023; Watt et al., 2023) and studies showing that negative childhood experiences negatively affect psychological resilience (Ding et al., 2017; Kaloeti et al., 2019).

Examining the factors affecting academic achievement is a complex issue, as academic achievement consists of a multidimensional structure that is intricately related to the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of the student (Mirlohi et al., 2024). Although cognitive abilities largely explain academic achievement, they are not sufficient to explain academic achievement alone (Pinto-Escalona et al., 2022). The academic performance of university students throughout their education process is reported to be affected by many individual and social factors, and one of these factors is negative childhood experiences (Elliot et al., 2018). Negative childhood experiences are not limited to the period in which they occurred but also threaten mental and psychological health in adulthood. These traumatic stories increase stress, depression symptoms, and psychological distress in individuals, negatively affecting many areas of their lives, including academic performance (Mirlohi et al., 2024; Nikkheslat et al., 2020). Increased levels of stress and psychological distress due to adverse childhood experiences may negatively affect students’ learning processes, attention, perception abilities, and time management, causing them to fail academically (Gresham & Karatekin, 2023; Hinojosa et al., 2019).

It was concluded that perceived social support from family members affected subjective well-being in the academic achievement of university students in Turkey (Gülaçtı, 2010). For this reason, the effects of family structures and social systems on the academic achievement and coping resources of Turkish university students cannot be denied (Pasha-Zaidi et al., 2020). Therefore, it can be said that negative childhood experiences increase health disabilities, worsen familial relationships, and negatively affect mental health, causing academic failure. At this point, when considering the impact of negative childhood experiences on academic achievement, it is important to examine direct and indirect relationships in terms of various variables. Qu et al. (2024) examined the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic performance with a global meta-analysis. As a result of twenty studies involving a total of 1,196,631 children and adolescents from five countries, it was determined that the negative childhood experiences score was positively associated with poor academic achievement, grade repetition, and special education support. Pan et al. (2021) found that having negative childhood experiences reduces the probability of going to university by up to 89% and negatively affects academic achievement. As a result of their longitudinal study, in which they examined the relationship between negative childhood experiences and the academic achievement of university students, Gresham and Karatekin (2023) found that negative childhood experiences have an indirect effect on academic problems through psychological distress. In their study, Hinojosa et al. (2019) concluded that negative childhood experiences are not directly related to academic achievement, but negative childhood experiences negatively affect academic achievement due to increasing health obstacles and familial obstacles. While Banyard and Cantor (2004) found that having at least one negative childhood experience caused a decrease in personal and academic adaptation to the university transition, Otero (2021) reported that each additional negative experience experienced reduces the likelihood of on-time graduation. Duncan (2000) also concluded that students who were exposed to abuse more than once were more likely to drop out of university.

Research shows that there is a relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic success, but this relationship is controversial because there are also studies in the literature that report that there is no relationship between negative childhood experiences and academic success. Tyrone et al. (2023) examined the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic performance in American students through meta-analysis and found a weak, negative correlation between adverse childhood experiences and academic performance. Muwanguzi et al. (2023) found that there was no significant relationship between adverse childhood experiences and the academic achievement of university students. Merians et al. (2019), who conducted a similar study, found that there was no significant difference between the academic achievements of those who had negative childhood experiences and those who did not. Based on these results, it can be said that negative childhood experiences may be a determinant of academic achievement, but more studies are still needed to eliminate the uncertainties and complexities in this relationship. Despite all this, high academic achievement is considered in the literature as a protective factor in preventing undesirable behaviors of students with negative childhood experiences (Chang et al., 2019). Because increasing academic achievement affects many important factors, such as the job opportunities a person will have after graduation, their status, their level of contribution to society, and their level of well-being in life (Hinojosa et al., 2019; Mirlohi et al., 2024; Pieterse, 2014), for this reason, it is thought that it is important to examine how adverse childhood experiences affect the academic achievement of university students and what the protective factors are in this effect in order to plan possible interventions (Merians et al., 2019).

There is evidence showing that adverse childhood experiences negatively affect academic achievement, but there are few studies examining the protective variables that may moderate this relationship (Goldenson et al., 2020). Malhi et al. (2019) found that 66% of individuals with adverse childhood experiences showed resilience and thus were protected from the negative outcomes of adverse childhood experiences. Based on this, it can be said that having negative childhood experiences can cause negative mental and physical consequences, but not every individual with negative childhood experiences has these consequences, and resilience can be a protective factor at this point (Mirlohi et al., 2024). Studies conducted with university students have shown that developing psychological resilience makes it easier to cope with stressful life events (Chow et al., 2018; Han et al., 2018) and increases students’ academic achievement (Hartley, 2011). The results obtained from this study, consistent with the literature, found that the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and academic achievement of university students was significant.

Psychological resilience is a complex and multifactorial structure that also has psychosocial foundations that manifest itself in many areas of emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and social functionality (Malhi et al., 2019). Psychological resilience can improve the coping skills and flexibility of university students with adverse childhood experiences by enabling them to restructure their mental frameworks, use alternative mindsets, and accept stressful past events (Forkus et al., 2020; Slijper et al., 2020). In addition, thanks to psychological resilience, individuals use functional coping skills by reducing their anxiety in the face of difficult life events (Mena et al., 2020), can control themselves and their behavior by creating positive emotions (Greco, 2021), can look at life optimistically (Fuchs et al., 2021) and cope with difficult situations (Fuchs et al., 2021). They can use active problem-solving strategies more when they encounter life conditions (MacCann et al., 2020). Thus, the stress of students with high resilience who focus on internal factors decreases, and having psychological resilience can play a protective role against stress and positively affect academic performance (Allan et al., 2014). Myat Zaw et al. (2022) found that adolescents with negative childhood experiences and low resilience levels had poor mental health scores and high undesirable behaviors scores. As a result of this study, it was stated that there is a need to examine the role of improvements aimed at increasing adolescent resilience in reducing the effects of negative childhood experiences. As a result of their study, Bethell et al. (2014) concluded that increasing resilience is important in improving students’ negative childhood experiences. In the same study, despite having negative childhood experiences, it was found that children with high resilience had higher school attendance rates. Based on all these results, it can be said that it is important to examine the mediating role of psychological resilience in the relationship between negative childhood experiences and academic achievement and that more studies are needed in this field because it is known that benefiting from appropriate guidance and psychological counseling services contributes to the academic achievement of students (Carlson, 2019). In addition, a better understanding of the developmental areas that affect university students with adverse childhood experiences, such as academic achievement, will contribute to increasing resilience, increasing overall university achievement, and all educational outcomes targeted in this regard (Banyard & Cantor, 2004; Hinojosa, 2019).

Suggestions

It is important to investigate resilience factors among university students exposed to adverse childhood experiences, and both risk and protective factors may vary according to regions and sociocultural environments. From this perspective, it is recommended that studies conducted in different regions investigate the protectiveness of resilience. As the university environment can present unique challenges, group psychological counseling practices can be planned to improve the psychological resilience of university students, especially those with negative childhood experiences, in order to increase their academic achievement. In order to increase the psychological resilience of these students, practices that include peer support or educator support can be planned. Considering the discussions in the literature, it is recommended to conduct similar quantitative studies. In addition, the factors that affect the academic achievement of students with negative childhood experiences and which psychological resilience practices can reduce the negative effects can be examined through qualitative studies of their opinions. Additionally, considering that the study is cross-sectional, it is recommended to examine psychological resilience in the relationship between negative childhood experiences and academic achievement through longitudinal studies.

Limitations

This study is a cross-sectional study limited to data obtained from 405 senior students who will graduate from state universities in Turkey in the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. The study is limited to self-report measures (adverse childhood experiences and psychological resilience). The scale used in the research gives an overall total score for negative childhood experiences and is not divided into types of negative experiences (physical neglect, sexual abuse). Certain types of negative experiences may be a more significant risk factor for academic achievement. This needs to be examined separately. Additionally, in this study, adverse childhood experiences were examined as a predictor of academic achievement, independent of family and health-related issues. This can be considered as a limitation of the study.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical Statement

ORCID iD

Özge Erduran Tekin

Data Availability Statement

The author is willing to share their data, analytics methods, and study materials with other researchers upon request.*

Author Biography

Özge Erduran Tekin graduated from Marmara University Guidance and Psychological Counseling PhD program in 2022. She works as an assistant professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the National Defense University Air Force Academy. She also serves as the Head of the Department of Education Sciences at the same institution. The author previously worked for many years at the Guidance and Research Center, which conducts mental and developmental examinations of individuals with special needs. In her doctoral dissertation, the author examined the mediating role of rumination in the relationship of childhood traumas with cognitive dissociation, psychological resilience and emotion regulation with mixed methodology. Currently, she mainly provides psychological counseling services to university students. Childhood traumas, trauma, rumination, resilience, and life satisfaction are her main areas of study, and she has international publications on these subjects.

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