Childhood Adversity and Mental Health Status of Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study at the Universities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan

Objective: To determine the frequency of childhood adversities among the university students of Islamabad and Rawalpindi and compare those adversities with their current mental health by measuring depression and anxiety. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU), Islamabad and ARID Agricultural University, Rawalpindi Pakistan from May to Aug 2019. Methodology: Survey data of 388 students between 19-25 years of age group was collected from 2 universities in the twin cities using a simple random sampling method for data collection in the form of questionnaires. First, frequencies of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) were determined, followed by a comparison of ACE with common mental disorders, i.e., depression using Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and anxiety using Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) using the chi-squared test. Results: The frequency of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) was found to be highest among those students who had an ACE score of 1-3 (74.7%), followed by those with an ACE score of 4-6 (24.7%). Overall, females had more ACE (66.8%) than males (33.2%). Strong association of ACEs with depression (p-value