60% of women at refuge suffered at least two adverse childhood events

Almost 60% of women surveyed at a refuge had at least two adverse childhood experiences, led by emotional abuse but with physical abuse and domestic alcohol abuse pronounced in many cases.

The study, entitled ‘Fostering Understanding, Empowering Change: Practice Responses to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Intergenerational Patterns of Domestic Violence’, looked at the experiences of women at the Cuan Saor Women’s Refuge in Tipperary.

The Tusla-funded project found of the 60 clients interviewed over a four-month period, 58% had experienced at least two ACEs in their childhood.

Using international comparisons, authors Dr Sarah Morton and Dr Megan Curran of the School of Social Policy, Social Work, and Social Justice at University College Dublin said: “the proportion of Cuan Saor service users experiencing two or more ACEs as children is twice that of the Welsh general population, where 27% experienced two or more ACEs, and one and a half times that of the US general population in both 2018 and 1997.”

Half of the service users who reported childhood maltreatment said they had been exposed to verbal abuse, while 32% had been exposed to physical abuse and 27% to sexual abuse.

As for the home environment, 40% said alcohol abuse had been a factor, while 13% reported domestic drug abuse. Just under one-third said they had seen domestic violence, while 38% had been exposed to mental illness.

All those figures were higher than comparable rates in Wales and the US, except for drug misuse which scored higher in the US.

According to the study: “Child maltreatment in the form of verbal abuse emerges as one of — if not the — most prevalent, followed closely by physical abuse (of both the child and of other members in the household) and substance misuse (alcohol and/or drugs).

“Cuan Saor service users, however, experience these and all other types of ACEs at noticeably higher rates than do the general populations of Wales or the United States.

“Half of the service users surveyed experienced verbal/emotional abuse as a child. Over half (53%) lived in a household where substances were misused (40% with alcohol abuse and 13% with drug misuse). Mental illness in the household was the third most common type of ACE experienced by Cuan Saor service users.

“Violence in the household, in the form of physical abuse of the child or physical abuse of other family members, affected one-third of respondents. Sexual abuse and parental breakup follow closely thereafter, affecting at least one-quarter of service users surveyed.”