In the UK and elsewhere, the ACE questionnaire has been adapted to assess the impact of trauma on disadvantaged and vulnerable children. Answers to the questionnaire generate a score, the results of which are sometimes used to inform decisions about what interventions are provided.
Many of the ACE categories are forms of child abuse and neglect, which are known to harm children and are punishable by law, while others represent forms of family dysfunction that increase children’s exposure to trauma (see below).
THE 10 ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
However, there is no universally agreed definition of ACEs, and other countries and bodies have adopted slight variations to the list. For example, Public Health Wales in a 2017 survey investigating the childhood experiences of 2,500 Welsh adults included verbal abuse in its list of ACEs. The World Health Organisation has designed a far more extensive screening questionnaire than the original US version, and includes questions related to such adverse experiences as warfare.
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