Adverse Childhood Experiences

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are only parts of your story; these are NOT destiny. Finding your ACE score and how it may have contributed to your health is crucial. ACEs are traumatic experiences that occur before your 18th birthday. However, resilient skills and support from adults and the community help to overcome trauma.

Some ACEs include:

• Emotional abuse
• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse 
• Emotional neglect 
• Physical neglect

 

Some other personal experiences can be traumatic. Stressful events to your family members or close ones can have adverse effects. Some of these comprise:

• Seeing parents getting a divorce or if one of the parents left
• The demise of a family member or a close one 
• Seeing your mother going through physical abuse
• Being around a drug or alcohol-addicted person 
• Presence of mental patient in the house
• A member of the family who went to jail

 

 

Impacts of ACEs

ACEs can impact one's brain development and reduce the ability to manage stressful situations. It may have an adverse effect in life and can affect the following-

• Behavior
• Physical and mental well-being
• Social life
• Education

Adverse childhood experiences don’t go away as adults without support. Moreover, many stressful events in childhood may come may affect adulthood. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study found a link between having stressful events in childhood and chronic diseases. Individuals having ACEs are found to be constantly assessing potential threats around them. It lowers the ability to learn and memorize things, making studying hard. 

 

 

 

Possible Health Risks from ACE

The ACE test score interpretation can tell how much riskier the person is. The higher the ACEs score, the more likely a person will experience an increased risk for the following health problems. 

 

• Alcoholism
• Drug Use
• Smoking
• Heart disease
• Liver Disease
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Depression
• Suicide Attempts
• Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs/STIs)
• HIV
• Diabetes
• Unintended Pregnancies
• Stroke
• Cancer
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Finding your ACE score

ACE score interpretation is made by asking 10 questions regarding their childhood traumas. Each ‘yes’ for a question counts as 1 score. After answering all the questions, the summed-up value is the ACE score.   

An average of 50-70% of the population will score at least one. Roughly one out of four has a significant ACE score. Finding the ACE score help figure out the health risks associated with the score holder.

According to the Area Health Education Center of Washington State University, students with three scores in ACE test score interpretation are more prone to academic failure, six times more prone to behavioral issues, and five times more likely to have attendance issues. Those students are scared to trust their teachers and other adults.