{"doi":"10.31234/osf.io/svmdx","title":"Self-acceptance and Purpose in life are Mechanisms Linking Adverse Childhood Experiences to Mortality Risk","abstract":"Objective: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with increased risk of premature mortality, but it is not clear why. Individuals with ACEs tend to have lower self-acceptance and purpose in life, which may be pathways between ACEs and risk of premature mortality. As such, we tested whether purpose and self-acceptance are mechanisms that link ACEs to mortality risk.Methods: We used the Midlife in the United States Survey (N = 6218; M ± SD = 46.89 ± 12.94 years) to test whether these factors were indirect pathways (mediated) the association between ACEs and mortality hazards over 24 years of follow-up. We employed a comprehensive ACEs measure that included 20 possible childhood adversities including emotional and physical abuse, household instability, socioeconomic climate, and ill health.Results: ACEs significantly increased mortality risk, HR=1.028, 95% CI (1.008, 1.047), p = 0.006. Self-acceptance and purpose accounted for an estimated 15% and 4% of the ACEs-mortality relation respectively. These effects withstood a range of adjustments and sensitivity analyses.Conclusions: ACEs may impact mortality risk partially through lower self-acceptance and purpose during adulthood. Given that self-acceptance and purpose may change through intervention, these factors may be useful targets for individuals with ACEs that could lead to a longer life.","journal":"PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints)","year":2023,"id":399477,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9174,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1125681,"name":"Sinéad D’Arcy-Bewick","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1125218,"name":"Milou Fredrix","orcid":"0000-0002-1592-7138","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1074917,"name":"Máire McGeehan","orcid":"0000-0002-4468-7727","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1125219,"name":"Emma Kirwan","orcid":"0000-0001-8536-023X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1125682,"name":"Meredith Willard","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107587,"name":"Amanda A. Sesker","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107590,"name":"Angelina R. Sutin","orcid":"0000-0002-1824-8974","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":484591,"name":"Nicholas A. Turiano","orcid":"0000-0002-2266-2959","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":654029,"name":"Páraic S. O’Súilleabháin","orcid":"0000-0002-1423-7119","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":43,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:19:56.084411Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}