If you work with teens who may have experienced trauma, you should really know about “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACEs).
The basic idea is that the more “bad things” that happen to a person between the ages of 0-17, the more at risk the person is of having behavioral issues, depression, and worse.
It is easy to get someone’s “ACEs” score.
In fact, you can get your own score right now. Simply count the number of these questions you could answer “yes” to before you turned 18:
- Did you feel that you didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, or had no one to protect or take care of you?
- Did you lose a parent through divorce, abandonment, death, or other reason?
- Did you live with anyone who was depressed, mentally ill, or attempted suicide?
- Did you live with anyone who had a problem with drinking or using drugs, including prescription drugs?
- Did your parents or adults in your home ever hit, punch, beat, or threaten to harm each other?
- Did you live with anyone who went to jail or prison?
- Did a parent or adult in your home ever swear at you, insult you, or put you down?
- Did a parent or adult in your home ever hit, beat, kick or physically hurt you in any way?
- Did you feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were special?
- Did you experience unwanted sexual contact?
Compared to people with a score of 0, people with a score of:
- 2 or more are “significantly more likely” to be in a fight
- 3 or more are 6x more likely to have behavioral issues
- 4 or more are 32.6x more likely to be diagnosed with learning/behavioral problems
- 5 or more are 8x more likely to have depressive symptoms
- 6 or more are at risk of a lifespan being shortened by 20 years
Our next training is on how to handle behavioral issues from teenagers with trauma. It covers the science of how trauma impacts the brain and practical strategies you can use.
Have a great week!
Peace,
Ryan