Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Assessment

Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Assessment

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) incorporate a variety of potentially distressing events that might occur in the lives of children between the ages of 0 and 17. Experiencing marital violence, being a victim of abuse or assault, or seeing a family member try or commit suicide are all instances of traumatic life experiences that Narayan et al. (2021) establish. Additional factors, particularly those related to the environment, will also be assessed. These include having family members addicted to drugs or alcohol, battling mental illness, or spending considerable time in jail or prison. Due to these conditions, a youngster may acquire feelings of insecurity and instability. These early life events have been associated with various health issues. Substance abuse, mental disease, and many chronic health problems are examples of these issues. Consequently, the Kaiser ACE research was conceived and conducted, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2021) illustrates. This was created so that a study could be undertaken on the consequences of domestic difficulties, such as child abuse and neglect, on an individual’s general health and well-being. Early infancy is the most influential component in determining a participant’s score. This score is calculated by summing the points earned in each category. The frequency of ACEs is strongly connected with negative health outcomes, according to the study’s results. The paper presents a personal ACE Assessment from the 10-question ACE assessment questionnaire. The assessment helps to establish relevant literature relative to ACE that the paper discusses in detail. ACE Assessment is an important requirement for monitoring the mental health of adults.

ACE Assessment Questionnaire

Question 1: Neither my parents nor any other adult in my childhood and early youth household swore, insulted, put down, humiliated, or physically and verbally assaulted me. The household established a friendly and comfortable environment for my upbringing. 0

Question 2: Neither my parents nor any other adult in the household physically abused me as my parents advocated for child rights and support. 0

Question 3: My childhood experience was free from any sexual assault from any person five years or older than me. 0

Question 4: The household was full of joy and love as my parents treated me well as an important and special kid. This helped to build my emotional strength in love and support for one another. 0

Question 5: I have never gone without my basic needs being met. The family was moderately wealthy, and my parents took good care of me. 0

Question 6: My parents never divorced, and they are still together up to date. 0 Question 7: There never occurred any violation against my mother in any way. 0

Question 8: the family was and is still against alcoholism and street drugs. I grew up knowing street drugs and alcohol are significant causes of chaos and poor health. 0

Question 9: Growing up in a spiritual family, the household withheld good moral values, and the unity helped to raise any concerning issues. This prevented any mental health instability or depression. The family was there for one another as it is now. 0

Question 10: No one in the household ever went to prison. 0

After taking the ten ACE assessment questions, my cumulative ACE score was 0. I know the exceptional good fortune that surrounded my childhood and early youth. I was raised by both of my parents, who treated me with the utmost affection and courtesy. My mum and father have always encouraged and supported my endeavours. Even today, I am certain that my parents will be there for me no matter what occurs and will be able to provide a hand. My upbringing was certainly one of God’s gifts. Growing up, I was lucky to have an extremely close relationship with my father’s mother. My parents worked throughout my childhood, so my grandmother raised me while they were away. I attribute many of the excellent qualities of my personality that I have acquired over the years to her influence. She has been someone I can always confide in and seek shelter from, even when my circumstances have been at their worst. Even at this late stage, I find it fascinating that despite the many positive events in my life, I struggle with mental health and addiction issues. Even though the test may be a useful predictor, it is important to remember that a person with a score of zero may still have the same issues as someone with a score of four or higher.

Literature Review

The ACE Scale was created by the collaboration of CDC’s Dr. Vince Felitti and Kaiser Permanente’s Dr. Robert Anda. Their objective was to determine whether there is a link between childhood trauma and adult physical health. The ACE scale is the outcome of ten years of study involving about 17,000 individuals (CDC, 2021). The client will be given ten questions on their history of unpleasant occurrences, such as abuse, neglect, parental mental illness, parental substance abuse, parental divorce, and domestic violence. Due to these variables, there is a larger likelihood that the adult child may engage in risky behaviours such as drinking, smoking, and using illegal drugs. There is a correlation between homelessness, prostitution, and re-victimization after sexual assault.

Children between zero and seventeen are collectively vulnerable to stressful occurrences known as ACEs. Negative childhood experiences include intimate relationship violence, mental and physical neglect, verbal and physical abuse, and sexual assault. Regardless of whether a child’s parents were missing due to death or incarceration, were the victims of domestic abuse, were alcoholics or drug addicts, or had a mental disorder, ACEs may damage a child’s sense of safety and security (CDC, 2021). Sixty-one percent of persons evaluated in twenty-five states in the United States reported having experienced several adverse childhood experiences, indicating that the prevalence of ACEs is especially high in the U.S. Although children may not remember the horrific traumas they had as youngsters, their bodies continue to process these events. According to the CDC, this may cause serious physical and mental health issues.

Childhood Trauma

Intergenerational trauma is the accumulated psychological stress experienced over one’s lifetime and handed down from one generation to the next due to the loss of people, property, and key cultural aspects. This trauma may be transmitted from parents to children or vice versa. Suicide, drug abuse, violence, and poverty are a few everyday issues faced by Native American communities (Turner et al., 2020). These are seen as unexpected repercussions resulting from the historical trauma Native Americans endured. In essence, today’s generations are experiencing the pain inflicted by centuries of persecution and annihilation of indigenous people at the hands of Europeans. This trauma may result in despondency, drug misuse, and mental health issues.

According to Stork et al.’s (2020) research on ACEs, emotional neglect is regularly feeling that no one in the family loves an individual, appreciates them, or values them; that no one in the family cares about, feels connected to, or supports them; or that no one in the family values them or thinks highly of them. Emotional abuse is likely the kind of negative childhood event that is hardest to detect from the outside. One of the distinctive aspects of trauma is the difficulty of individuals to properly connect with others, especially those striving to live together as a family. An individual will be able to become more culturally conscious if they know how the history of Native Americans affects the modern population; thus, one must comprehend this notion. According to Kidman et al. (2019), one must be aware that this component, when coupled with other circumstances, may occasionally result in negative childhood experiences. Having this information might facilitate the implementation of appropriate therapies.

According to Deschenes et al. (2021), most Native American adolescents seem to have had less-than-ideal upbringings. Children of Native American descent are 38 percent more likely than children of other ethnicities to have had an imprisoned family member while growing up. According to Narayan et al. (2021), even if the person has coped with a traumatic occurrence in the past, they may continue to feel unsafe throughout the current distressing event. They may be continuously expecting that they will lose goods, giving the feeling that no area is secure. Moreover, suppose both of a kid’s parents were exposed to the same historical traumatic incident. In that case, this might result in the development of mental health and drug addiction difficulties in both of them, which would have a negative impact on how they raised their child (Turner et al., 2020). These youngsters will have more bad experiences throughout their childhood as a direct consequence.

Building Capacity and Resilience

In order to effectively adapt to life-altering calamities and emerge from them stronger than before, it is vital to develop resilience. Resilience not only helps individuals overcome difficult circumstances but also stimulates personal development and enhances one’s overall quality of life. However, regardless matter how resilient one is, one will eventually face hardship and calamity (Zhang et al., 2020). It is of the highest significance to aid people in developing resilience. The most useful thing that could be done is to acquire effective coping abilities. In addition, Kidman et al. (2019) say that children should make it a point to lessen their stress levels by engaging in activities that offer them pleasure. Finding another individual in whom one can find a reflection of themselves is of the biggest significance. It is crucial to surround oneself with supporting individuals, whether they are friends, family, instructors, or others.

Mersky et al. (2019) say that the most effective method for promoting resilience in families is to highlight the significance of seeing one’s family as a unified unit. The objective is to support and encourage one another, despite the reality that not everyone will always get along. Knowing that my family would always have my back has played a significant role in my success, and I wish others had the same chance. Knowing that one has a support system, even if it is only one member of the family, is the most crucial thing, according to Anda et al. (2020). Providing support groups is key to strengthening the community’s resilience to hardship. There are organizations like NA and AA, but Hargreaves et al. (2019) believe there should be more places where individuals who have had a horrible day and need to vent in a safe setting may go. Being aware of the presence of others Knowing that others are feeling or thinking the same thing as one is often sufficient to convince someone that all will work out in the end. In addition, it is strongly suggested that one seeks the counsel of those who have gone through it, adapted to it, and survived it.

Negative childhood experiences, including sexual abuse, have been related to later sexual problems and demonstrated to have an effect on behaviour, such as trust issues, which may lead to later sexual problems. There is no unanimity about the degree of causality between women’s hazardous sexual behaviours and bad childhood experiences. Numerous victims of rape and sexual assault often highlight the numerous ways in which these horrific events have impacted their life. Portwood et al. (2021) consider the instance of Marna, who was a teenager when her father subjected her to sexual assault. During therapy, she disclosed that her past experiences had caused her to shun her parents, producing issues in her present relationship and forcing her to hang out with other people when she was a teenager, resulting in eating disorders, a bad sex life, and a low self-image. She also mentioned that these concerns had contributed to her bad self-perception. The majority of rape cases are not found for an extended period of time; hence, the consequences have a subtle effect on the marriage relationships of the victims.

Criminality

The repercussions of traumatic childhood events might manifest in different ways in adult criminal behaviour. For example, children who have been molested or who have had horrific events may have a “heightened stress response” (McLennan et al., 2020). This may impair their capacity to manage their emotions, make it harder for them to obtain a good night’s sleep, reduce their resistance to disease, and raise their risk of engaging in criminal activity. Mersky et al. (2019) understand that many adults get diagnosed with dependent personality disorder in addition to depression. There is evidence that their childhood traumatic experiences lead to the deterioration of their adult relationships. They often struggle to manage their emotions, which may have contributed to their fragile mental conditions. The community should be concerned with reducing ACEs since they are preventable and hence beneficial to the community; doing so may also help reduce crime rates. ACEs refer to the childhood challenges endured by children.

Conclusion

The ACE scale is, from an individual perspective, a game-changer in the world of medicine since it combines mental and physical health. As a consequence, the typical “fight or flight” response of the body is disrupted. This transforms adaptable, normal, and perhaps lifesaving habits into maladaptive and potentially damaging health behaviours. The U.S. is presently confronting one of the biggest health threats in its history due to unfavourable childhood experiences. It is a reality that early suffering has a substantial effect on the health of a person over the course of their life. In addition to emotional and physical abuse, ACEs include incidences of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. According to other results of the ACE questionnaire, researchers believe that high scores often indicate individuals having issues with their eating, relationships, sexuality, and self-esteem. Those who have been neglected typically struggle to build and sustain relationships, but victims of alcoholics frequently have similar issues. The results of the ACE test shed new light on the need to maintain a healthy lifestyle in order to reduce the risk of developing health issues connected with having a high score on the ACE scale.

References

Anda, R. F., Porter, L. E., & Brown, D. W. (2020). Inside the adverse childhood experience score: Strengths, limitations, and misapplications. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 59(2), 293-295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.01.009

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), (2021, April 6). About the CDC-Kaiser ACE Study. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/about.html#:~:text=The%20CDC %2DKaiser%20Permanente%20adverse,two%20waves%20of%20data%20collection.

Deschênes, S. S., Kivimaki, M., & Schmitz, N. (2021). Adverse childhood experiences and the risk of coronary heart disease in adulthood: examining potential psychological, biological, and behavioural mediators in the Whitehall II Cohort study. Journal of the American Heart Association, 10(10), e019013. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/JAHA.120.019013

Hargreaves, M. K., Mouton, C. P., Liu, J., Zhou, Y. E., & Blot, W. J. (2019). Adverse childhood experiences and health care utilization in a low-income population. Journal of health care for the poor and Underserved, 30(2), 749. https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2019.0054

Kidman, R., Smith, D., Piccolo, L. R., & Kohler, H. P. (2019). Psychometric evaluation of the Adverse Childhood Experience International Questionnaire (ACE-IQ) in Malawian adolescents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 92, 139-145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.03.015

McLennan, J. D., MacMillan, H. L., & Afifi, T. O. (2020). Questioning the use of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) questionnaires. Child Abuse & Neglect, 101, 104331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104331

Mersky, J. P., Lee, C. T. P., & Gilbert, R. M. (2019). Client and provider discomfort with an adverse childhood experiences survey. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 57(2), e51-e58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2019.02.026

Narayan, A. J., Lieberman, A. F., & Masten, A. S. (2021). Intergenerational transmission and prevention of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Clinical Psychology Review, 85, 101997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2021.101997

Portwood, S. G., Lawler, M. J., & Roberts, M. C. (2021). Science, practice, and policy related to adverse childhood experiences: Framing the conversation. American Psychologist, 76(2), 181. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000809

Stork, B. R., Akselberg, N. J., Qin, Y., & Miller, D. C. (2020). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and community physicians: What we’ve learned. The Permanente Journal, 24. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/19.099

Turner, H. A., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K. J., Jones, L. M., & Henly, M. (2020). Strengthening the predictive power of screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in younger and older children. Child Abuse & Neglect, 107, 104522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104522

Zhang, L., Mersky, J. P., & Topitzes, J. (2020). Adverse childhood experiences and psychological well-being in a rural sample of Chinese young adults. Child abuse & neglect, 108, 104658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104658

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