Adverse Childhood Experiences

Substantial bodies of research from various fields have consistently documented the long-term, detrimental effects of childhood maltreatment and trauma. In the health science field, a body of research—known as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) studies—has raised awareness among health-care providers of the cumulative or dose-response impact of childhood adversity on long-term health and well-being. Much of research on child maltreatment and trauma presents partitioned prevalence estimates for individual types of family violence and abuse, obscuring the reality that many children are victims of more than one type of abuse or violence. In contrast, ACE researchers designed a composite measure of childhood adversity, labeled an ACE score, calculated by summing eight to ten types of childhood adversities, each measured as either present or absent during childhood regardless of the duration or severity of the adversity.