The invisible burden: how childhood adversity impacts adult financial and health outcomes

Childhood adversity shapes adult well-being across multiple domains, and its consequences are often intensified by structural inequality. This dissertation examines how traditional Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Expanded Adverse Childhood Experiences (EACEs) are associated with adult financial, psychological, behavioral, and health outcomes, particularly among populations disproportionately exposed to adversity and systemic disadvantage. Guided by Intersectionality Theory, Critical Race Theory, and bioecosocial perspectives, this dissertation uses Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to examine how early adversity and broader social conditions interact across the life course. This dissertation consists of two interconnected studies. Study 1 investigates the relationships between ACEs, EACEs, and adult financial well-being, financial hardship, and life satisfaction among Black, Latino, and Impoverished White adults. Findings indicate that both traditional and expanded forms of adversity are linked to lower financial well-being, greater hardship, and lower life satisfaction, with important differences across racialized and socioeconomic groups. Study 2 extends this analysis to adult health outcomes, showing that adversity is associated with poorer mental and physical health, higher stress, greater engagement in health-risk behaviors, and increased chronic disease burden. The findings also underscore the protective role of social factors, including emotional support and social connectedness, in shaping resilience and vulnerability. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that childhood adversity is linked not to isolated adult outcomes, but to interconnected forms of disadvantage unfolding across financial security, psychosocial well-being, behavior, and health over time. By integrating ACEs and EACEs within a single analytic framework, this dissertation advances scholarship on adversity, structural inequality, and health equity. It also highlights the need for trauma-informed, equity-centered policies and systems that address both individual experiences and the broader social conditions shaping opportunity and well-being across the life course.