Take a minute to truthfully answer the following ten questions.
Nobody on this website knows who you are or sees your answers.
The higher your score, the more likely you are as an adult to now experience multiple negative physical, psychological, and emotional difficulties. Here’s how….
You just completed a well-known, well-regarded set of questions called the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) quiz.
Experts in childhood trauma research developed the questions as part of a study involving 17,421 people who were willing to answer questions about their childhood honestly.
The following are the findings from the study.
“Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often swear at you, insult you, or put you down?”
One out of ten people said YES.
“Did one of your parents often or very often push, grab, slap, or throw something at you?”
and
“Did one of your parents often or very often hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?”
More than 25% said YES
In other words, more than a quarter of the U.S. population is likely to have been repeatedly physically abused as a child.
“Did an adult or person at least 5 years older ever have you touch their body in a sexual way?”
and
“Did an adult or person at least 5 years older ever attempt oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?”
28 percent of women and 16 percent of men said YES.
“As a child, did you witness your mother sometimes, often, or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her?”
and
“As a child, did you witness your mother sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard?”
One in eight people said YES.
Each yes answer was scored as one point, leading to a possible ACE score ranging from zero to ten.
With each additional adverse experience reported, the toll in later life damage increases.
For example, a person who experienced frequent verbal abuse, who had an alcoholic mother, and whose parents divorced would have an ACE score of three. That person was much more likely to experience negative issues later in life than someone who scored 0, 1, or 2.
Of the two-thirds of respondents who reported an adverse experience, 87 percent scored two or more.
One in six of all respondents had an ACE score of four or higher.
More than half of those with ACE scores of four or higher reported having learning or behavioral problems, compared with 3 percent of those with a score of zero.
As the children matured, they didn’t “outgrow” the effects of their early experiences.
Traumatic experiences are often lost in time and concealed by shame, secrecy, and social taboo, but the study revealed that the impact of trauma pervaded these patients’ adult lives.
high ACE scores turned out to correlate with higher workplace absenteeism, financial problems, and lower lifetime income.
As the ACE score rises, chronic depression in adulthood also rises dramatically.
The likelihood of being on antidepressant medication or prescription painkillers also rose proportionally.
Self-acknowledged suicide attempts rise exponentially with ACE scores. From a score of zero to a score of six there is about a 5,000 percent increased likelihood of suicide attempts.
People with an ACE score of four were seven times more likely to be alcoholics than adults with a score of zero.
Injection drug use increased exponentially: For those with an ACE score of six or more, the likelihood of IV drug use was 4,600 percent greater than in those with a score of zero.
At an ACE score of zero, the prevalence of rape was 5 percent; at a score of four or more it was 33 percent.
Girls who witness domestic violence while growing up are at much higher risk of ending up in violent relationships themselves, while for boys who witness domestic violence, the risk that they will abuse their own partners rises sevenfold.
Most morbidly obese subjects had been sexually abused as children.
More than 12 percent of study participants had seen their mothers being battered.
The list of high-risk behaviors predicted by the ACE score included smoking, obesity, unintended pregnancies, multiple sexual partners, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Those with an ACE score of six or above had a 15 percent or greater chance than those with an ACE score of zero of currently suffering from any of the ten leading causes of death in the United States, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischemic heart disease, and liver disease. They were twice as likely to suffer from cancer and four times as likely to have emphysema.
