Associations Between Adverse and Positive Childhood Experiences and Adolescent Mental Health A Sequential Multiple Mediation Model

This dataset was collected from adolescents enrolled in three secondary schools in China between May and June 2025 using an online questionnaire platform. A convenience sampling strategy was employed, and a total of 700 valid self-report questionnaires were obtained after data screening. The dataset was designed to examine the relationships between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and adolescent mental health, as well as the underlying psychological mechanisms and protective factors.

The dataset includes demographic information (e.g., gender, grade level, household registration, and only-child status) and key psychological variables, including adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences (PCEs), rumination, psychological resilience, and mental health. ACEs and PCEs capture early-life risk and protective experiences, rumination reflects maladaptive cognitive processing, psychological resilience represents an internal adaptive resource, and mental health serves as the primary outcome variable. PCEs were examined as a moderating variable, while rumination and psychological resilience were tested as sequential mediators.

These data provide empirical evidence for understanding how early adverse and positive experiences jointly shape adolescent mental health through cognitive and psychological pathways, and offer valuable insights for family- and school-based prevention and intervention strategies aimed at promoting adolescent mental well-being.