Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) Questionnaire consists
of traumatic experiences encountered by a child between the ages of zero and
eighteen. There are ten identified ACEs, including living with mentally ill family
members, being physically and/or verbally abused by a family member, and
parents getting divorced. Those who are victims of ACEs have higher chances of
being involved in alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, suicide, poor physical
health, and obesity. A picture of the ACEs Questionnaire is below:
Link of Picture: https://imgur.com/gallery/kRaav
The most popular ACEs in black children in the United States
are negligence and divorce. Sixty-one percent of black children in the United
States have had at least one adverse childhood experience, and thirty-three
percent of black children have experienced two to eight ACEs. This racial group
had the highest percentage of children who have experienced an ACE.
In the film we watched in class last week, For Colored Girls, Crystal’s children
had experienced a significant number of ACEs at a very young age. ACEs in
children’s lives, according to this film, included being victims of frequent
physical abuse, watching their mother being physically abused, living with
someone that was an alcoholic, and living with someone who was depressed or
mentally ill. Crystal’s children experienced at least four ACEs, which is an
extreme number of ACEs for a young child to experience. I found this to be
tremendously discouraging and depressing, because Crystal’s children were
exposed to risk ACEs that were out of control, and would effect their health
throughout their lives.
For More Information on ACEs: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/prevalence-adverse-childhood-experiences-nationally-state-race-ethnicity
