Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) and Health
My name is Dr. Lane Lasater, a retired clinical psychologist. In gratitude for the life I have been given, I am sharing everything I learned during my career and personal life here on my website http://www.LaneLasater.com and on my YouTube Channel Life Roadmaps from a Retired Psychologist https://www.youtube.com/@lane205 Each post contains my written material, an AI generated graphic, audio summary, and a short video summarizing the material.
A printable and fillable PDF “Exercises to Support Recovery from Family Trauma Syndrome” with each exercise I describe in my videos can be downloaded here:
https://www.lanelasater.com/exercises-to-support-recovery-from-family-trauma-syndrome/
In this post, I introduce you to research on “Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs)” and give you the opportunity to take stock of the ACEs you faced utilizing a scale developed by Drs. Vincent J. Felitti and Robert F. Anda and colleagues. These scientists conducted breakthrough research in 1998 titled “The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study” that demonstrated a significant correlation between adverse childhood events and many of the leading causes of death in adults. They studied a sample of 9,508 men and women (all who had health insurance coverage through Kaiser Permanente HMO in San Diego).
Below is the AI audio summary of this post
Participants first received a standardized medical evaluation which assessed adult risk behavior, overall health status and disease, and then completed a mail survey which asked them about seven categories of adverse childhood experiences: psychological, physical, or sexual abuse; violence against mother; or living with household members who were substance abusers, mentally ill or suicidal; or ever imprisoned.
You can download a fillable PDF workbook for all the exercises I will present during this Transcending Family Trauma series here: https://www.lanelasater.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TFT-Fillable-Recovery-Workbook.pdf
I post the questionnaire here or you can complete it online at https://www.acesaware.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ACE-Questionnaire-for-Adults-Identified-English-rev.7.26.22.pdf
Please complete the ACEs assessment below for yourself if you would like.
Understanding Your ACEs Score
Your total possible score is 10. Two-thirds of their respondents reported a score of one, and 87% reported a score of two or more. In their findings, a score of four or more adverse childhood experiences was associated with increased risk of disease, social and health problems. Below are the percentage breakdowns for scores of zero to three, and four or more ACEs.
Here’s the researchers’ visual summary and description of the relationship they found between ACEs scores and health risk behavior and diseases.
“More than half of respondents reported at least one, and one-fourth reported ≥ 2 categories of childhood exposures. We found a graded relationship between the number of categories of childhood exposure and each of the adult health risk behaviors and diseases that were studied (P <.001). Persons who had experienced four or more categories of childhood exposure, compared to those who had experienced none, had 4- to 12-fold increased health risks for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, and suicide attempt; a 2- to 4-fold increase in smoking, poor self-rated health, ≥ 50 sexual intercourse partners, and sexually transmitted disease; and a 1.4- to 1.6- fold increase in physical inactivity and severe obesity. The number of categories of adverse childhood exposures showed a graded relationship to future adult diseases including ischemic heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, skeletal fractures, and liver disease. The seven categories of adverse childhood experiences were strongly interrelated, and persons with multiple categories of childhood exposure were likely to have multiple health risk factors later in life.”
Your ACEs Score
My Adverse Childhood Experiences score was six. This confirmed what I already knew—I started life as a very high-risk person. My recovery from ACEs, family trauma and addiction is a life and death matter for me. Whatever your risk score is, please know that every action you take toward recovery counts. Your recovery efforts are deadly serious but there is a way back which is what my life, career and this website are all about. Keep the faith!