ABSTRACT
The study focused on the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and its Coping Skills among young adults in University of Benin. Four research questions were raised to guide this study. Specifically, the study seeks to; contribute to the existing body of knowledge on the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences in the lives of young adults by exploring particularly the physical, mental and behavioural impact of these experiences and also of the coping skills adopted to deal with them. It was aimed towards determining the right or proper coping skills that would help young adults who were left traumatized by the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Pertinent literature were reviewed to guide this study.
Survey research design was adopted for this study. The population of the study was 44,140 students (21,881 female and 22, 259 male) the population comprises full time 2021/2022 academic session). A sample size of 150 was used, this was obtained with the random sampling technique. The research Instrument used for the study was a Likert questionnaire which was designed by the researcher to be used to collect data from the sample. Data collected was analyzed using simple frequency and percentages.
The findings revealed that Adverse Childhood Experiences are often chronic and occurs in a child's family or social environment thereby causing harm or distress, secure attachment is needed to build trust within a child, a nurturing and welcoming environment would help children feel secured, young adults feel neglect when not provided with emotional support, parental presence in childhood influences how young adults view the world and finally that problem- focused and Emotion- focused coping skills are adopted by young adults to deal with the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Based on the study, it was concluded that awareness concerning the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and its Coping Skills would help resolve issues brought about by it. This is because young adults who have knowledge concerning the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and its Coping Skills in their lives would adopt the proper coping skill to deal with its impact. In accordance with the findings, the recommendations made was that Health Education should be provided for young adults in order that they may have knowledge of the mental, physical and behavioural impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, Health Educators stress the need for the adoption of problem- focused coping skills for dealing with the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences and also the need to teach the importance of treatment and rehabilitation for young adults impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences.
