Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a major American research project that reveals a powerful relationship between our emotional experiences as children and our physical and mental health as adults.

The ACE Study was carried out by Vincent J. Felitti, MD of Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program and Robert Anda, MD at the Centers for Disease Control.

The following is a summary based on a report written by Dr. Felitti in 2002. 17,421 adults volunteered at Kaiser Permanente’s Department of Preventive Medicine in San Diego to take part in the ACE Study of the following eight categories of childhood abuse and household dysfunction:

1) Recurrent physical abuse

2) Recurrent severe emotional abuse

3) Contact sexual abuse

4) Growing up in a household where someone was in prison

5) Where the mother was treated violently

6) With an alcoholic or a drug user

7) Where someone was chronically depressed, mentally ill, or suicidal

8) Where at least one biological parent was lost to the patient during childhood - regardless of cause

An individual exposed to none of the above categories was given an ACE Score of 0; and an individual exposed to any four of the ACEs was given a Score of 4, etc.

The two most important findings are that these adverse childhood experiences:

• Are vastly more common than recognized or acknowledged and,
•  Have a powerful relation to adult health a half-century later.

The Study explores how these adverse childhood experiences play out decades later in a doctor’s office. Several measures of adult health were reviewed including: smoking, depression, drug and alcohol use, obesity, sexually transmitted diseases, and several others. The Study outcomes reveal a strong correlation between an individual’s ACE Score and the likelihood of that individual having a physical or emotional disorder.

For more information and updates, visit the ACE Study at the Center for Disease Control website.