Hope as a Mediator between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Mental Well-Being in University Students

There is a significant increase in adverse childhood experiences of university students, and there is a need to improve these experiences for mental well-being. Hope can contribute to both preventive and intervention guidance services. In this context, the mediating role of hope in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and mental well-being was investigated. The study group consists of 440 students who continue to study in universities in Turkey in the 2024-2025 academic year. The Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale Short Form, and the Trait Hope Scale were used as data collection tools. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and internal consistency analysis were performed to examine the suitability of the scales for the study group. The relationships between the variables were examined by Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis Process Macro (model 4). The mediation relationship was also evaluated with the Bootstrap technique. According to the results of the analyses, it was observed that there were significant negative relationships between adverse childhood experiences, mental well-being, and hope, and significant positive relationships between hope and mental well-being. In addition, adverse childhood experiences are a predictor of mental well-being, and hope has a partial mediating role in the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and mental well-being. The results may contribute to research on the use of hope-based practices to prevent the adverse childhood experiences of university students from affecting their mental well-being. In addition, hope can be considered as one of the resources that can be utilized to increase mental well-being.