Latent Profiles of Adverse Childhood Experiences and Alcohol and Drug Use in Latino College Students

Abstract

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are robust risk factors for alcohol and drug use problems, with documented effects in Latino populations across both family- and community-level adversities. Yet research on ACEs has been limited by three methodological constraints: a lack of inclusion of racial/ethnic diverse participants, including Latinos; a large focus on family-level ACEs (e.g., maltreatment, household dysfunction) that typically overlooks community-level ACEs (e.g., community violence, discrimination); and a reliance on cumulative risk scores that obscure the impact of specific adversity patterns. To address these gaps, this study sought to identify latent patterns of family- and community-level ACEs and their distinct associations with alcohol and drug misuse among Latino/Hispanic university students in the United States. Latent class analysis (LCA) of data from N  = 2,865 participants identified four distinct ACE classes: Low Adversity, Household Dysfunction, Polyvictimization, and High Adversity. While U.S.-born status and female identity were associated with the High Adversity and Household Dysfunction classes, sexual minority identity was the only demographic characteristic associated with increased risk of membership across all three ACE classes: Household Dysfunction (RRR = 1.37), Polyvictimization (RRR = 2.81), and High Adversity (RRR = 5.29). Regression models revealed unique associations. Those in the High Adversity ( OR  = 1.80) and Polyvictimization ( OR  = 1.78) classes had higher odds of hazardous drinking. Household Dysfunction was most strongly linked to low-risk drug use (RRR = 2.33), while Polyvictimization conferred the highest risk for problematic drug use (RRR = 6.46). These findings suggest that a person-centered analysis of expanded ACEs is critical for revealing specific risk pathways and developing targeted clinical screening and public health interventions.