Clinicians use a common tool to assess the extent of toxic stress a child experiences during his or her childhood. It’s called the Adverse Childhood Experience test, or ACE for short. It’s a simple tool made up of just 10 yes/no questions.
Please take two minutes and take the test.
In his New York Times column, David Brooks succinctly summarized the adult outcomes associated with higher ACE scores.
“The link between childhood trauma and adult outcomes was striking. People with an ACE score of 4 were seven times more likely to be alcoholics as adults than people with an ACE score of 0. They were six times more likely to have had sex before age 15, twice as likely to be diagnosed with cancer, four times as likely to suffer emphysema. People with an ACE score above 6 were 30 times more likely to have attempted suicide.”
Does this make you rethink what a rough childhood really means?
Read more about how both good and bad EARLY CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES impact us later in life.