Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction is harmful. Further, there is growing evidence that adverse effects, for example on mental and physical health, persist in to adulthood. But not all children exposed to ACEs have poor outcomes. A better understanding of protective factors, particularly those amenable to change, could identify suitable targets for intervention. Little previous research on consequences of exposure to ACEs has considered the context in which the child lives beyond their family. Schools are a dominate context in the lives of children and adolescents, and the neighbourhood environment of their home and school becomes of increasing importance as children grow older and have more autonomy. Amongst children who experience adversity in childhood, characteristics of their school and neighbourhood may influence their likelihood of positive outcomes over and above individual and family characteristics. If this is true, interventions at a school and neighbourhood level could be beneficial. In this study, the outcomes considered will include school attendance, educational attainment, and entrance to higher education, mental health, and criminal involvement.

It is known that families who experience the most difficulties will be more to drop-out of studies like ALSPAC over time. This makes it challenging to study outcomes in people who have experienced adversity in childhood. Record linkage, where ALSPAC is linked to health and administrative data, helps address this problem as outcome measures can be obtained from routine sources (GP, education, crime records) as well as from questionnaires.