ACEs Questionnaire

Instructions

This assignment is designed to understand the potential impact of generational trauma and adverse childhood experiences on lifelong health, disease, and general functioning. It will help students recognize the current manifestations of ACEs – How does this look ‘walking through the classroom door? Identify strategies and resources to build resilience in all your students.

The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Questionnaire is a 10-item self-assessment. Each affirmative answer is assigned one point. At the end of the questionnaire, the points are totaled for a score out of ten, which is known as the ACE score. The questionnaire results identify health and social risk factors and suggest that there may be a link between adverse traumatic experiences and chronic disease in adulthood, including heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. The questionnaire may help those who have a high ACE score to become more informed about their increased risk factor for health issues. It could also encourage them to seek treatment or therapy if they have not already done so. 

Complete the ACEs questionnaire What is My ACE Score.pdf Download What is My ACE Score.pdf

Review all of the following content:

Submit your reflective essay in a word document via Canvas.

Historical and Generational Trauma

During the beginning of “Western Civilization,” Europe is a war-ravaged land with deep wounds and the scars of violence. Part of the legacy of Western society is that it is a traumatized society – one that has traumatized many other societies. Trauma at that scale does not heal easily, if ever. When generational trauma and cultural genocide are committed, the soul of a people is murdered. Europeans or the west are the walking wounded who have produced the world’s largest genocides.

These experiences, shared by communities, have resulted in cumulative emotional and psychological wounds that are carried across generations. The effects of the traumas inflicted on groups of people because of their race, creed, and ethnicity linger on the souls of their descendants. Many people in these communities experience higher rates of mental and physical illness, substance abuse, and erosion in families and community structures. The persistent cycle of trauma destroys family and communities and threatens the vibrancy of entire cultures.

Current Research

Neurobiological, epigenetics, and psychological studies have shown that traumatic experiences can diminish concentration, memory, organizational and language abilities that lead to problems with academic performance, and difficulty forming relationships. Learning about the impacts of trauma can help us understand some of the reasons people have difficulties with learning, behavior, and relationships.

There are many types of trauma – racism, poverty, bullying, watching a loved one being abused, losing a caregiver (grandparent, mother, father, etc.), homelessness, surviving and recovering from a severe accident, involvement with the foster care system, involvement with the juvenile or prison system, etc. Traumatic experiences can lead to neglect, abuse, homelessness or violence potentially impairs social, emotional, and cognitive development; affecting an individual’s memory, their ability to pay attention, plan, think things through, and other executive functions causing learning, behavior, and relationship problems.

Read the article: ACEs Highlights.pdf Download ACEs Highlights.pdf

Important Note: If upon completion, you find any of the questions made you feel uncomfortable, or caused you distress, contact a licensed healthcare provider for assistance. If you do not have a healthcare provider, all 211 for information on local resources.