Adverse Childhood Experience Study

Parenting is hard. There are many times that parenting can leave a person stressed, fatigued, and on their “last nerve”. Merry that with social isolation, poverty, and lack of support—including decent child care; and the risk factors for child maltreatment increase. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Social isolation, parenting stress, poor parent-child relationships, and negative interactions” (CDC, 2016) are listed under child abuse and neglect family risk factors. These are risk factors that can also produce Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE’s) and according to Nadine Burke Harris (quoting a research study entitled “Adverse Childhood Experience Study”), “ACE’s include physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; physical or emotional neglect; parental mental illness, substance dependency, incarceration; parental separation or divorce, or domestic violence” (TED, 2015).
One hypothetical example: Single mom of three kids leaves her abusive boyfriend, but has to work two jobs to keep a roof over their heads. She sometimes must work all night and because she cannot afford to pay someone; the children stay with the “shady neighbor”. She has no close family and does not have the time or energy to make friends. She is severely depressed and has been drinking to cope. Neglecting her kids was not something she set out to do; but life has become hard. This is one example of many ways that poverty, parent isolation, and lack of support can contribute to child maltreatment. It is also an example how ACE’s can be