Adverse Childhood Experiences

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that can have negative effects on health and well-being. In the original ACEs study, over 17,000 Kaiser Permanente participants across a broad spectrum of socioeconomic and educational statuses were asked about their exposure to ten types of childhood trauma, now known as ACEs.  CLICK HERE for Three Types of AECs.

The study showed the following:

• Adverse childhood experiences are common. For example, 28% of study participants reported physical abuse and 21% reported sexual abuse.   
• Adverse childhood experiences often occur together. Almost 40% of the original sample reported two or more ACEs and 12.5% experienced four or more.
• Adverse childhood experiences have a dose dependent relationship with many health problems.   As researchers followed participants over time, they discovered that a person's cumulative ACEs score has a strong, graded relationship to numerous health, social, and behavioral problems throughout their lifespan, including substance use disorders.

This study was the first to demonstrate a striking association between ACEs and adverse health outcomes. CLICK HERE for  study graph