A study of six Texas community colleges where higher - than - expected numbers of
poor and first - generation students progress to four - year schools finds that a structured
academic pathway, student - centered culture, and culturally sensitive leadership are common threads among them.
Our findings add insight into the
pathways linking early childhood adversity to
poor adult wellbeing.29 Complementing past work that focused on physical health, 9 our findings provide information about links between ACEs and early childhood outcomes at the intersection of learning, behavior, and health.29 We found that ACEs experienced in early childhood were associated with
poor foundational skills, such as language and literacy, that predispose individuals to low educational attainment and adult literacy, both of which are related to
poor health.23, 30 — 33 Attention problems, social problems, and aggression were also associated with ACEs and also have the potential to interfere with children's educational experience given known associations between self - regulatory behavior and
academic achievement.34, 35 Consistent with the original ACE study and subsequent research, we found that exposure to more ACEs was associated with more adverse outcomes, suggesting a dose — response association.3 — 8 In fact, experiencing ≥ 3 ACEs was associated with below - average performance or problems in every outcome examined.