Our research investigates how different dimensions of childhood experience (e.g., harshness versus unpredictability) distinctly influence development (e.g., Ellis et al., 2009, 2022), and how one or more adverse childhood experiences (e.g., abuse and neglect) combine to generate cumulative risk (e.g., Nweze et al., 2023a, 2023b, 2023c). We study these processes in relation to cognitive functioning, mental health, and various behavioral outcomes. In doing so, we analyze already existing secondary data from large cohort studies in Western countries. Some secondary databases we typically utilize include the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), IMAGEN, and ABCD cohorts. Some of these cohorts have collected data on participants over 3 decades and across different generations, so we believe there are many unanswered questions in these data about how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) affect developmental outcomes, especially in the long term. That is why our research implements longitudinal and statistical modeling (e.g., latent change score modeling, latent growth modeling, cluster modeling, etc.) in an attempt to address these critical questions of individual differences, heterogeneity, within- and between-subject variability, as well as stability and remission in the effects of ACEs across time.
Given the paucity of research on the effects of childhood adversity outside the Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic (WEIRD) samples, our research and data collection efforts also give some attention to the developing, low-income countries in the Global South. Such data will provide more insight into the developmental adaptations or impairments among population samples who are disproportionately affected by chronic socioeconomic hardship, exposure to violence, and other forms of early environmental risk.