The ACE Study
In addition, the CDC also lists other resources that can be utilized to prevent and help educate about ACEs. One thing that was mentioned was, VetoViolence, which is a website that acts as a source for trainings, tools, and resources for violence prevention professionals (CDC 2016). Its interactive tools and trainings are designed to help practitioners stop violence before it begins, which may address gaps between practitioners knowledge regarding ACEs. In addition, case studies have also been done in Washington and Oklahoma where ACE data has been used in helping to prevent child abuse and neglect. Oklahoma has strategically applied for, received, and disseminated federal funding to address childhood adversity specifically (CDC 2016). These
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Early on during the initial ACE Study, the CDC came up with something called, The ACE Pyramid, which represents a conceptual framework for the study from conception to death. At the bottom of the pyramid is adverse childhood experiences, then above that is social, economic and cognitive impairment, then adoption of health-risk behaviors, then disease, disability and social problems and finally, early death. During the 1980s and early 1990s, information about risk factors for disease had been widely researched and merged into public education and prevention programs (Felitti, Anda, Norderberg, Williamson, Spitz 1998). It was known that risk factors for many chronic diseases tended to cluster, being that, persons who had one risk factor tended to have one or more other risk factors too. However, it became known that many risk factors such as, smoking, alcoholism or drug use, were not randomly distributed and seemed to come from a specific origin (Felitti et al., 1998). Because of this knowledge, the ACE Study was designed to assess these “scientific gaps” about the origins of risk factors. These gaps are depicted as the linkage between Adverse Childhood Experiences to risk factors that lead to the health and social consequences as the pyramid gets higher. Specifically, according to Felitti et al., the ACE study was designed to help answer the question: “If risk factors for disease, disability, and early mortality are not randomly distributed, what influences precede the adoption or development of them?” By working within this framework, the ACE Study began to uncover how adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are strongly related to development of risk factors for disease and health and social well-being throughout the lifespan. Although this discovery was made, there still remains gaps as to what it is specifically about ACEs seems
Early on during the initial ACE Study, the CDC came up with something called, The ACE Pyramid, which represents a conceptual framework for the study from conception to death. At the bottom of the pyramid is adverse childhood experiences, then above that is social, economic and cognitive impairment, then adoption of health-risk behaviors, then disease, disability and social problems and finally, early death. During the 1980s and early 1990s, information about risk factors for disease had been widely researched and merged into public education and prevention programs (Felitti, Anda, Norderberg, Williamson, Spitz 1998). It was known that risk factors for many chronic diseases tended to cluster, being that, persons who had one risk factor tended to have one or more other risk factors too. However, it became known that many risk factors such as, smoking, alcoholism or drug use, were not randomly distributed and seemed to come from a specific origin (Felitti et al., 1998). Because of this knowledge, the ACE Study was designed to assess these “scientific gaps” about the origins of risk factors. These gaps are depicted as the linkage between Adverse Childhood Experiences to risk factors that lead to the health and social consequences as the pyramid gets higher. Specifically, according to Felitti et al., the ACE study was designed to help answer the question: “If risk factors for disease, disability, and early mortality are not randomly distributed, what influences precede the adoption or development of them?” By working within this framework, the ACE Study began to uncover how adverse childhood experiences (ACE) are strongly related to development of risk factors for disease and health and social well-being throughout the lifespan. Although this discovery was made, there still remains gaps as to what it is specifically about ACEs seems