ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
Purpose: To achieve a healthier community through:
public education about the Adverse Childhood Experiences, and
promotion of resilience building knowledge and skills at the individual, family, and community levels.
What are ACEs?
Prevent ACEs Now: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Individual and Family Risk Factors
Caregiving challenges related to children with special needs.
Those who use spanking and other forms of corporal punishment for discipline.
Families with low income.
Children who don’t feel close to their caregivers.
Children with few or no friends.
Children with friends who engage in aggressive or delinquent behavior.
Families with high conflict and negative communication skills.
Families with caregivers who were abused or neglected as children.
Families with young and/or single parents.
Youth who start dating early or engaging in sexual activity early.
Families experiencing high levels or parenting stress and/or economic stress.
Families who have a limited understanding of children’s needs or development.
Families that are isolated from and not connected to other people.
Families with attitudes accepting of or justifying violence or aggression.
Families with inconsistent discipline and/or low levels of parental monitoring and supervision.
Information from www.cdc.gov
Community Risk Factors
High rates of violence and crime.
High rates of poverty and limited educational and economic opportunities.
High unemployment rates.
Easy access to drugs and alcohol.
Few community activities for young people.
Unstable housing and where residents move frequently.
Families frequently experience food insecurity.
Where neighbors don’t know or look out for each other and there is low community involvement among residents.
Families frequently experience food insecurity.
High levels of social and environmental disorder.
“ACEs are the new cholesterol. If you don’t screen for it, and you don’t look for it, you’ll never find it, but it has more health impacts than you imagine.”