“AN ACE’S STUDY” (Advocacy / Data Collection Assignment)
OVERVIEW OF ASSIGNMENT
“In this assignment, students will demonstrate knowledge of prevention, education and/or advocacy activities which can assist their clients. Students will develop measurable outcomes, and analyze collected data with the goal of increasing the effectiveness of prevention, education, and advocacy activities at their current Internship site.
Students will work their site supervisor to identify a prevention, education, or advocacy component of services which could benefit from some analysis. This project (like all research) begins with good questions.”
For this assignment I focus on two survey’s: (1) The Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire & (2) A Resiliency Scoring Survey.
The ACE’S Questionnaire
Overview of The CDC-Kaiser Permanente (ACE) Study
“The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is one of the largest investigations of childhood abuse and neglect and later-life health and well-being…The original ACE Study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997 with two waves of data collection. Over 17,000 Health Maintenance Organization members from Southern California receiving physical exams completed confidential surveys regarding their childhood experiences and current health status and behaviors.” CDC.gov, 2011). The purpose of this study was to discover if a correlation existed between early childhood experiences and overall well-being later in life. The results of this study illustrate that wide-ranging social, psychological, and health-related consequences exist as a result of early childhood traumatic experiences. Over 70 research papers have been published since 1998 (acestoohigh.com, n.d.). All of these studies show a correlation between early child adverse experiences and deficits in well-being later in life.
A Definition of “Adverse Childhood Experiences”
So what exactly are Adverse Childhood Experiences anyway? “ACEs are adverse childhood experiences that harm children’s developing brains so profoundly that the effects show up decades later; they cause much of chronic disease, most mental illness, and are at the root of most violence,” (acestoohigh.com, n.d.). Adverse Childhood Experiences fall into three general categories: childhood abuse, neglect, and household experience (Felitti, et al, 1998). The CDC.gov (2016) website provides a definition of these three categories of Adverse Childhood Experiences:
How does ACE’s survey define abuse?
(1) EMOTIONAL ABUSE: “A parent, stepparent, or adult living in your home swore at you, insulted you, put you down, or acted in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt,” (CDC.gov, 2016).
(2) PHYSICAL ABUSE: “A parent, stepparent, or adult living in your home pushed, grabbed, slapped, threw something at you, or hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured,” (CDC.gov, 2016).
(3) SEXUAL ABUSE: “An adult, relative, family friend, or stranger who was at least 5 years older than you ever touched or fondled your body in a sexual way, made you touch his/her body in a sexual way, attempted to have any type of sexual intercourse with you,” (CDC.gov, 2016).
How does the ACE’s survey define neglect?
(1) EMOTIONAL NEGLECT: Someone in your family helped you feel important or special, you felt loved, people in your family looked out for each other and felt close to each other, and your family was a source of strength and support.
(2) PHYSICAL NEGLECT: There was someone to take care of you, protect you, and take you to the doctor if you needed it2, you didn’t have enough to eat, your parents were too drunk or too high to take care of you, and you had to wear dirty clothes.
How does the ACE’s survey define household dysfunction?
(1) MOTHER TREATED VIOLENTLY: Your mother or stepmother was pushed, grabbed, slapped, had something thrown at her, kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, hit with something hard, repeatedly hit for over at least a few minutes, or ever threatened or hurt by a knife or gun by your father (or stepfather) or mother’s boyfriend.
(2) HOUSEHOLD SUBSTANCE USE: A household member was a problem drinker or alcoholic or a household member used street drugs.
(3) MENTAL ILLNESS IN HOUSEHOLD: A household member was depressed or mentally ill or a household member attempted suicide.
(4) PARENTAL SEPARATION OR DIVORCE: Your parents were ever separated or divorced.
(5) CRIMINAL HOUSEHOLD MEMBER: A household member went to prison.
Overview of Survey Questionnaire
For my data research project, I decided to utilize a shortened version of the ACE’s study questionnaire provided by the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges, (n.d). While the CDC’s original ACE’s study was much more comprehensive, it was quite lengthy and provided information well-beyond the scope of this project (CDC.gov, 2016). Additionally, it was felt that the number of willing participants I could garner for this project would be turned off by the 20-pages survey that over 100 questions. Instead, the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ.org) survey is just one page and includes ten questions. This ACE’s survey includes just 10 questions with ten “yes or no” responses. Additionally, the scoring system of this test is quite simple. Respondents are to count the number off “yes” responses, and this gives them their “ACE Score”. This score can then be compared against the results of the original CDC research. Each of these question touch upon one above-described areas of Adverse Childhood Experiences:
Question #1-3: Sexual, Physical & Emotional Abuse…
(1) Did a parent or other adult in the household often swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? or Act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?
(2) Did a parent or other adult in the household often push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? or
Ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?
(3) Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? or try to or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal sex with you?
Question #4-5: Neglect
(4) Did you often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special? or your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other?
(5) Did you often feel that you didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you? or your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?
Question’s #6 – 10: Household Dysfunction.
(6) Were your parents ever separated or divorced?
(7) Was your mother or stepmother: Often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or Sometimes or often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?
(8) Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic or who used street drugs?
(9) Was a household member depressed or mentally ill or did a household member attempt suicide?
(10) Did a household member go to prison?
This Link Provides convenient presentation graphics on the influence of Adverse Childhood Experiences on well-being later in life….
Resilience Questionnaire
Origins of Resilience Survey
“This questionnaire was developed by the early childhood service providers, pediatricians, psychologists, and health advocates of Southern Kennebec Healthy Start, Augusta, Maine, in 2006, and updated in February 2013. Two psychologists in the group, Mark Rains and Kate McClinn, came up with the 14 statements with editing suggestions by the other members of the group. The scoring system was modeled after the ACE Study questions,” (Alaska Center for Resource Families, n.d.). This survey focuses on protective factors rather than risk factors. Additionally, it provides a causal explanation as opposed to a etiological one. Rather than examining adverse childhood experiences as a cause for long-term deficits in well-being, this survey focuses on factors contributing to resilience in life. In other words, what factors exist as a protective factor associated with someone’s long-term well-being.
What is Resilience?
“The Oxford English Dictionary defines resilience in two ways. On the one hand it stands for ‘the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity’. This is a more scientific oriented definition that refers to the elasticity of raw materials. On the other hand, resilience is de ned as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness’. Hereafter resilience will be understood in the ability of technical and/or social systems to be tough when facing disturbances, regardless of their kind. This highly general definition, with the commonly known keyword of ‘toughness’, (Mauer, 2016).” In other words, the notion resilience is a toughness an individual presents to handle life’s challenges. Many factors play a role in an individuals resiliency.
(1) Individual protective factors can include temperament-based characteristics that are reinforced within one’s environment that result in positive adaptive learned responses to daily challenges (Werner, 2005).
(2) Familial protective factors promote resiliency through the establishment of positive bonds with a caregiver who is reliable and able to provide a structured environment (Werner, 2005).
(3) Community protective factors promote resiliency “through elders and peers in their community for emotional support and sought them out for counsel in times of crisis”, (Werner, 2005, p. 12).
Overview Questionnaire.
The survey I utilized for my data project comes from the Alaska Center for Resource Families, which aims to provide resources to assist families who wish to either adopt or participate in the foster care system (acre.org, n.d.). This Resiliency survey includes 14 questions based on the above-described factors (individual, familial, and community). For example, question 14 asks “I believed that life is what you make it” (Alaska Center for Resource Families, (n.d.). This is an individual temperament-factor contributing to one’s overall resiliency score. In contrast question #1 asks: “I believe that my mother loved me when I was little” (Alaska Center for Resource Families, n.d.). This question is a familial factor that contributes to one’s resiliency score. Finally questions such as #7 reflect a community factor that contributes to one’s overall resiliency score: “When I was a child, teachers, coachers, youth leaders or ministers were there to help” (Alaska Center for Resource Families, n.d.).
Questionnaire Scoring…
The survey provides a likert-type scale with responses ranging from “Definitely true; Probably true; Not sure; Probably not true; and Definitely not true.” All “Definitely true & Probably True” responses are count as one point. The maximum score a person is able to obtain from this test is 14. The high the score the more protective factors they had in childhood contributing to their overall resiliency to adverse life events.
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