

(Of course, other types of trauma exist that could contribute to an ACE score, so it is conceivable that people could have ACE scores higher than 10 however, the ACE Study measured only 10 types.)Īs your ACE score increases, so does the risk of disease, social and emotional problems.

The higher your ACE score, the higher your risk of health and social problems. You get one point for each type of trauma. Think of it as a cholesterol score for childhood toxic stress. The study’s researchers came up with an ACE score to explain a person’s risk for chronic disease. Thirty-six states and the District of Columbia have done their own ACE surveys their results are similar to the CDC’s ACE Study.

Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often… Push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? or Ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?.Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often… Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? or Act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?.
.jpg)
The most important thing to remember is that the ACE score is meant as a guideline: If you experienced other types of toxic stress over months or years, then those would likely increase your risk of health consequences, depending on the positive childhood experiences you had (see below). The ACE Study included only those 10 childhood traumas because those were mentioned as most common by a group of about 300 Kaiser members those traumas were also well studied individually in the research literature. There are, of course, many other types of childhood trauma - racism, bullying, watching a sibling being abused, losing a caregiver (grandmother, mother, grandfather, etc.), homelessness, surviving and recovering from a severe accident, witnessing a father being abused by a mother, witnessing a grandmother abusing a father, involvement with the foster care system, involvement with the juvenile justice system, etc. So a person who’s been physically abused, with one alcoholic parent, and a mother who was beaten up has an ACE score of three. Five are related to other family members: a parent who’s an alcoholic, a mother who’s a victim of domestic violence, a family member in jail, a family member diagnosed with a mental illness, and experiencing divorce of parents. There are 10 types of childhood trauma measured in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study.(There are many others…see below.) Five are personal - physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect, and emotional neglect.
