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Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences (PHL ACEs)
Measuring Mobility Toolkit > Measure Selector > Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences (PHL ACEs)
Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences (PHL ACEs)
Factor: Being Valued in Community
Age: Adult
Duration: 3-5 minutes
Reading Level: Less than 6th grade
What
Developed by Cronholm et. al. (2015), the Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey (PHL ACEs) measures childhood exposure to trauma. The PHL ACEs contains two subscales: the Conventional Adverse Childhood Experiences (Conventional ACEs) subscale and the Expanded Adverse Childhood Experiences (Expanded ACEs) subscale. The Conventional ACEs subscale is an adapted version of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) with 15 items that measure exposure to abuse and dysfunction at home. The Expanded ACEs subscale contains six items that measure problems experienced in one’s community.
Who
Researchers have used this scale with adults from a diverse set of racial and ethnic backgrounds, including White, Black, Latinx, Asian, and other groups. This sample included respondents below the poverty line (Wade, Jr et al., 2016).
How
INSTRUCTIONS
To complete the Conventional ACEs subscale, respondents answer 15 questions about whether or not and how often they experienced trauma in childhood (e.g., “While you were growing up how often did a parent, step-parent, or another adult living in your home swear at you, insult you, or put you down?” and “While you were growing up, how often did a parent, step-parent, or another adult living in your home act in a way that made you afraid that you would be physically hurt?”).
The Conventional ACEs Scale measures multiple types of trauma, including: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional neglect, physical neglect, domestic violence, household substance abuse, household mental illness, and having a family member in prison.
To complete the Expanded ACE subscale, respondents answer six questions about the following types of experiences in their communities: witnessing violence, experiencing discrimination, living in an unsafe neighborhood, being bullied, and living in foster care.
Both subscales use several different response options. Please see the Google document for detailed scoring instructions.
RESPONSE FORMAT
This survey uses multiple answer formats. Please see the Google document for more information.
1. While you were growing up how often did a parent, step-parent, or another adult living in your home swear at you, insult you, or put you down?
2. While you were growing up how often did a parent, step-parent, or another adult living in your home act in a way that made you afraid that you would be physically hurt?
3. While you were growing up did a parent, step-parent, or another adult living in your home push, grab, shove, or slap you?
4. While you were growing up did a parent, step-parent, or another adult living in your home hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?
5. During the first 18 years of life, did an adult or older relative, family friend, or stranger who was at least five years older than yourself ever touch or fondle you in a sexual way or have you touch their body in a sexual way?
6. Attempt to have or actually have any type of sexual intercourse, oral, anal or vaginal with you?
7. There was someone in your life who helped you feel important or special.
8. Your family sometimes cut the size of meals or skipped meals because there was not enough money in the budget for food.
9. How often, if ever, did you see or hear in your home a parent, step parent, or another adult who was helping to raise you being slapped, kicked, punched, or beaten up?
10. How often, if ever, did you see or hear in your home a parent, step parent, or another adult who was helping to raise you being hit or cut with an object, such as a stick, cane, bottle, club, knife or gun?
11. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic?
12. Did you live with anyone who used illegal street drugs or who abused prescription medications?
13. While you were growing up, did you live with anyone who was depressed or mentally ill?
14. Did you live with anyone who was suicidal?
15. Did you live with anyone who served time or was sentenced to serve time in a prison, jail, or other correctional facility?
16. How often, if ever, did you see or hear someone being beaten up, stabbed, or shot in real life?
17. While you were growing up, how often did you feel that you were treated badly or unfairly because of your race or ethnicity?
18. Did you feel safe in your neighborhood?
19. Did you feel people in your neighborhood looked out for each other, stood up for each other, and could be trusted?
20. How often were you bullied by a peer or classmate?
21. Were you ever in foster care?
Why It Matters
The Expanded ACEs subscale may be particularly useful for certain groups of people. For instance, men, people of color, divorced persons, full-time workers, and people with incomes at or below 150% of the poverty line are at a greater risk for experiencing traumas that are part of the Expanded ACEs subscale (Cronholm et al., 2015). Respondents who report “other” as their race, who live with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or who are disabled are at a greater risk for experiencing traumas that are part of the Conventional ACEs subscale.
Both Conventional and Expanded ACE traumas are linked to mental health problems and risky health behaviors. Higher scores on the Conventional ACE scale (but not Expanded ACE) are associated with physical health problems. People who experience more than three Expanded ACE traumas are at a higher risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and substance abuse problems, but only if they are living on a low income. People who experience the same number of traumas and live on a high income are not at risk for these problems (Cronholm et al., 2015). This finding suggests that childhood traumas may be particularly harmful for people from low-income backgrounds.
HEADS UP
This scale contains an adapted version of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale with the addition of community-level Expanded ACEs. Because there is significant overlap between Philadelphia ACEs and ACE, researchers can choose one that best fits their group of respondents.
This questionnaire contains potentially upsetting material. Researchers should consider preparing a list of support resources that respondents can use if they become upset.
SEE ALSO
References
Cronholm, P. F., Forke, C. M., Wade, R., Bair-Merritt, M. H., Davis, M., Harkins-Schwarz, M., Pachter, L. M., & Fein, J. A. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences: Expanding the concept of adversity. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 49(3), 354-361.
Wade, Jr, R., Cronholm, P. F., Fein, J. A., Forke, C. M., Davis, M. B., Harkins-Schwarz, M., … Bair-Merritt, M. H. (2016). Household and community-level Adverse Childhood Experiences and adult health outcomes in a diverse urban population. Child Abuse & Neglect, 52, 135–145.
