Adverse childhood experiences

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include childhood emotional, physical, or sexual abuse and household dysfunction during childhood. The categories are verbal abuse, physical abuse, contact sexual abuse, a battered mother/father, household substance abuse, household mental illness, incarcerated household members, and parental separation or divorce. The experiences chosen were based upon prior research that has shown to them to have significant negative health or social implications, and for which substantial efforts are being made in the public and private sector to reduce their frequency of occurrence.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are correlated with physical and mental health problems in adolescence and adulthood,^[1] including cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, autoimmune diseases, substance abuse, and depression,^[2][3] however, some of these problems are not inevitable outcomes of ACEs.^[4]