Using Avoidant Emotion-Focused Coping and being a Woman with Adverse Childhood Experiences as the Worst-Case Scenario for Internalising Problems

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) bring an increased risk for the development of internalising outcomes. Nevertheless, how the cumulative effect of ACEs combines with other variables, such as coping strategies, to give rise to internalising problems has been little studied so far. Therefore, the current study investigates which specific combinations of total ACEs, coping strategies, and sociodemographic variables influence depression, anxiety, and stress. To this end, 420 young Spanish adults (63% women) 18-20 years old (mean age = 18.92; <i>SD</i> = 0.77) participated in the study. Participants answered sociodemographic questions and completed the ACEs Questionnaire, the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale, and the Brief Coping Scale. Both fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis and regression models suggested that the cumulative impact of ACEs, in combination with avoidant emotion-focused coping, may conduce internalising problems in women. These findings could serve as a basis for interventions aimed at the primary screening of populations more sensitive to the development of internalising problems as well as in the re-education of adaptive coping strategies in those who have suffered ACEs, in order to avoid more severe long-term problems.